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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
Blue-winged Olives
Baetis

Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.

Ventral view of a Hydropsyche (Hydropsychidae) (Spotted Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
With a bit of help from the microscope, this specimen keys clearly and unsurprisingly to Hydropsyche.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Landscape & scenery photos from Clearwater Mountains

Riding out 2

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Tundra colors

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Retrieving the last load of meat. Multiple groups of hunters had seen a pack of at least three wolves in this area the previous day, and a few days earlier. So I was a little bit nervous about leaving part of the meat overnight, and relieved when we found it untouched. It may have helped that a group of hunters had camped on the road not far away.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Final load packed up. I strapped the hind quarters off either side of my bike's rear tire rack, loaded the burger/rib bag and antlers in my pack, and had an easy ride out to the car without Lena having to carry anything or get messy caribou on her gear.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Skinning it out. Starting the job at about 5:55 pm.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Ready to ride out. All of the caribou meat was loaded on my bike here. I couldn't ride it like this, of course, so I guided it along and easily got it close to the road. It was very difficult to go through the last 20 yards of thick, tall bushes near the road, though.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Beautiful yellow valley

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Caribou down!. I took this quick photo as soon as I got to the kill at about 4:45 pm

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
South side of the Windy Creek valley

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Lena overlooking a little lake by Windy Creek Road

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Pretty setting. I've suffered some miserable weather in pursuit of big game, but I always seem to actually succeed when the weather's fantastic.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Packed up and ready to go. This was a great way to transport the meat. It stayed cool, didn't stink up the car, and didn't even get dusty at all from the dry road.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Bringing in the meat cart. My caribou was shot about 1/5 mile uphill from the road/trail, and our backpacks were back at the car, so I decided to bring my bike up across the tundra and use it to wheel the meat back to the road in one heavy, frustrating load.

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Windy Creek Road

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Sunset

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
Working into sunset. Lena wanted to get away from the smell and gore and warm up, so she went for a little walk up the hill, where she took this nice photo back toward me

From Clearwater Mountains in Alaska
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