Latest Photography

A year at The School of Trout

A collection of images from the world's finest fly fishing school

by Todd Tanner - Saturday, Mar 25th, 2023

There are days when I’m not convinced our society knows the difference between a blessing and a curse. That said, I do think it’s easier for fly fishers to make that particular distinction — if only because we’re tied, however tenuously, to the real world; to nature.

We’re all tempted, of course, to shut our eyes and surrender to the momentum of American culture; to focus on the number of fish we just caught, or the size of that last big brown trout, or the shiny baubles of our sport — the rods and the reels and the flies. It’s the path of least resistance, and it requires far less effort on our part. At the end of the day, though, our embrace of the long rod offers possibilities beyond mere inertia. Fly fishing is a direct conduit to the natural world; to those brief interludes of clarity and purpose that sparkle here and there amidst the insistent gloom of modernity.

Nature protects us and transforms us. Our time on the water is a shield against a culture grown numb and increasingly brittle. And beauty remains a balm for the soul.

One of the blessings — and it is truly a blessing — of running a small fly fishing school is that I get to work with several stellar professional photographers. Which means that I’m afforded an opportunity to see fly fishing, and nature in the raw, though their lenses as well as my own.

It becomes an obligation, then, to share their best images from our time together. Tim Romano and Jeremy Roberts are two of the very best, and their photos from their time at the School of Trout speak for themselves. My only hope is that you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.

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A blanket hatch of trout food — mayflies — on the Henry’s Fork, home to The School of Trout. (photo: Tim Romano)

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The Railroad Ranch is the spiritual center of western fly fishing. The old ranch buildings date back to the days when the Harriman and Guggenheim families entertained the rich & famous on the banks of the Henry’s Fork. (photo: Tim Romano)

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John Juracek, who is known far and wide as the finest casting instructor on the planet, shares his wisdom with the Tao of Trout class on a late September morning. (photo: Tim Romano)

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Casting is an integral part of fly fishing, and the lawn overlooking the Railroad Ranch stretch of the Henry’s Fork is the perfect place to master the requisite skills. (photo: Tim Romano)

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School of Trout instructor Brant Oswald, who has decades of experience as an angler, a guide and a fly fishing instructor, delves into the finer points of dry fly construction. (photo: Tim Romano)

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It’s not always about the fishing. Our time on the water is a sublime way of connecting with the entirety of the natural world. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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The world-famous Millionaire’s pool, where wild rainbows rise to mayflies and caddis, also offers a view of the majestic Tetons. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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A School of Trout instructor demonstrates a specific nymphing technique. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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Under a master’s tutelage —in this case, School of Trout instructor Tom Rosenbauer — students learn that fly casting is both an essential skill and a doorway to grace. (photo: Tim Romano)

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While spring creek fishing is incredibly enjoyable, it also demands focus and awareness. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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The Box Canyon on the Henry’s Fork can be one of the world’s most enlightening classrooms. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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The distant Tetons, which lie just south of Yellowstone National Park on the Idaho/Wyoming border, arise from the early morning darkness. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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Sight shouldn’t hold a monopoly on our angling. School of Trout instructor Pat McCabe demonstrates the benefits of feeling the rod load while casting blindfolded. (photo: Tim Romano)

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Golden aspen leaves frame instructor Tom Rosenbauer as he wraps up an on-the-water demonstration at the Tao of Trout class. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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Head fly casting instructor John Juracek demonstrates the importance of stealth and accurate casting at the 2022 Spring Creek class in Oregon. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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Instructors — in this case, Karlie Roland — strive to offer students the perfect balance between freedom and supervision. (photo: Tim Romano)

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School of Trout instructors watch over the students from the banks of the Henry’s Fork. (photo: Tim Romano)

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After class wraps up for the day, students and instructors share stories around the fire pit as elk bugle in the distance. (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

The Fish of a Lifetime

A sneak peek into Matt Harris' 656-page fly fishing opus

by Matt Harris - Friday, Dec 9th, 2022

It’s likely that you could use the fingers on one hand, leaving a few to spare, to count the number of anglers that have had the privilege to travel the world more widely than photographer Matt Harris. For decades, Matt has circumnavigated the globe—visiting over 40 different countries—in pursuit of wild fish and wild places. All the while, Matt has compiled not only a library of breathtaking imagery, but of memories, as well. Though Matt is well known as both a highly skilled photographer and fly angler, unlisted amongst his talents is perhaps his greatest: storytelling—something those who have had the good luck of sharing a campfire or a bar tab with Matt know well. A gifted raconteur, he commands the room when spinning a tale, compelling the attention of anyone within earshot.

For the first time, Matt has amassed these decades worth of images and stories in a collection. In his new book, The Fish of a Lifetime, Matt offers readers a chance to pore over a massive, 656-page trove of globe-spanning tales, illustrated by hundreds of his beautiful, high-resolution images exquisitely printed in large format full color.

We invited Matt to share a small portion of his voluminous collection of images — and the memories they evoke — with us. Dig in.

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Kristján Páll Rafnsson surveys the Hagafoss Pool on the Geirlandsá River, part of the Battle Hill Lodge program in southern Iceland. This spectacular river offers sight fishing in gin clear water for sea run brown trout that can weigh twenty pounds or more.

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The mighty Yokanga on Northwest Russia’s Kola Peninsula has provided me with perhaps more elation and heartbreak than any other river on the planet. This spectacular Atlantic salmon gave me an epic, nail-biting fight in the notoriously treacherous maelstrom of ‘Boulder Alley’, just upstream of the river’s main camp. My guide Edvard managed to net it just upstream of a huge, impassable rapid that would have surely spelled the end of the affair. As the picture shows, Edvard was at least as elated as I was to land this special fish.

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A portrait of my dear friend Vova Moisayev. After I was swept into a terrifying rapid on the brutal, ice-cold Yokanga I somehow swam ashore, where Vova first scolded me for still having my rod in my hand before saving me from hypothermia by somehow managing to build a fire on the snowy banks of the river.

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My young guide Hayden Dale and I spent a magical day on ‘The River of Dreams,’ a remote fishery in Chilean Patagonia accessible only by riding in on horseback. All through that beautiful morning, we caught fish, and when we pulled in to have lunch, I realized that we hadn’t seen another living soul. Looking at the light playing on the vast ramparts of the valley, it was hard to believe there could be a more beautiful spot to fish for trout anywhere in the world.

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I was involved in an exploratory trip to see if my friends the Trochine twins had discovered a viable chinook salmon fishery in Chilé. They had! Nico and Alex, along with their lovely sister Fabi built a simple camp in one of the most beguiling valleys I have ever seen, a big, brawling river surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Andes. This is the Austral Kings Home pool, and this image was taken on the very first morning of the exploratory trip. This is my great friend Mariano Wainstein, who was impatient to dash downstream to fish the semi-mythical “Canadian” Pool before the light was on the water. I told him to wear the red buff that I handed him and to stand still for two minutes. I captured this image, which takes me back to that magical first morning, full of hope and discovery. It is one of my favorites. It adorns the cover of my book and is also on the wall of my office.

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Every day, we tussled with chrome bright Chinook that fought like tigers, leaving us exhausted but deliriously happy as we guzzled gallons of delicious Malbec, wolfed down delicious butterflied lamb ‘asado’ and laughed around the campfire long into the night. Although it can be a fickle mistress when these huge chrome fish are in the mood, it is a truly extraordinary place to fish.

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My friend Lynn Palensky fishing down a pool that I christened the ‘Dentist’s Chair’ on the Kvachina River, Western Kamchatka. My fishing partner, the Olympic show jumper Brian Walker and I pulled out a brace of magnificent chrome-bright steelhead from this run on the last evening of a memorable trip to this spectacular and pristine wilderness.

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This shot was taken on the last evening of an exhilarating trip to the remote rivers of the Kamchatka Steelhead Project. Despite a tough week, our brilliant Camp Manager Justin Miller simply refused to let anyone get down. As a result, we kept at it, and eventually, the steelhead arrived and provided unforgettable sport. This picture perfectly captures the warmth and camaraderie that we experienced and is a testament to Justin’s relentless positivity and optimism.

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I spent a magical week with my middle son, Tom, fishing and diving at Jardines de la Reina in Cuba. Tom is a dive master and the deal was that I would learn to dive if Tom learnt to cast a fly. Although Tom was a bit slack in fulfilling his part of the deal, I undertook a crash PADI course, as promised. As well as catching heaps of bonefish with Tom and managing three permit and two Grand Slams with my dear old guide and friend Coki, I spent half the week scuba diving. In addition to numerous sharks, I found myself up close and personal with this big but fortunately friendly Cayman. To shoot this close-up, I had to get right in the creature’s face, and even Tom had to concede Dad had some solid-steel cojones!

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Fishing in Cuba is not just about the high-flying tarpon and the heartbreakingly fickle permit, it’s also about the faded grandeur of the crumbling capital Havana. No trip is complete without a taxi ride in an open-top Chevy or Buick ‘as big as a whale’ down the city’s sweeping sea-front drive, the Malecon.

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Keith Clover discovered the Tanzanian tigerfish fishery of the Mnyera and Ruhudji Rivers as recently as the mid-nineties, and there are few more exhilarating fly fisheries on earth. As soon as I saw the fish in the images that Keith sent me, I knew I had to go. After a slow start, these razor-fanged brutes delivered almost relentless action for the last four days of my trip. In addition to the epic fishing, I enjoyed a non-stop safari and a million laughs with Keith’s wonderful team, Rob Scott, Mark Murray, Greg Ghaui and Stu Harley.

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My first encounter with the huge Payara of the Orinoco River was unforgettable. My best specimen, a monstrous 24-pound fish, took us well over 500 yards downstream and would have ‘spooled’ me had I not jumped into the boat and chased it down the Orinoco’s mighty rapids with my brilliant guide Arnel.

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The Chimane tribe populate the banks of the remote Secure River and its tributaries the Pluma, the Itirisama and the Agua Negra, which go to make up the fabulous Tsimane golden dorado fishery, run by my dear friends Rod Salles and Marcelo Perez. The tribes folk still hunt their food with bow and arrow, catching the luckless ‘sabalo’ baitfish with unerring accuracy, and the kids swim like fish in the clean clear waters of these limpid, rain-fed streams. My trip to Tsimane in the very early days of the operation provided extraordinary sight fishing for spectacular dorado up to 27 pounds, and was an epic adventure that I will never forget. Thank you so much, Marcelo and Rod, for one of the greatest trips of my life.

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When my guide Borro told me that it was impossible to catch a red-tailed catfish on the fly, I just had to try. I tied up an outsized version of pioneering fly-tier Blane Chocklett’s suitably named Gamechanger flies, replete with not one but two built-in rattles, and sight-fished for the pirarara on the clear white sand bars of Brazil’s Rio Agua Boa. After around six attempts or so, I got a ‘follow’, and Borro let out a yelp of disbelief. An hour later, I made an ultra-slow presentation to this fish and he snaffled it. After a titanic struggle, the fish became entangled in the limbs of a submerged dead tree. Unperturbed, Borro carefully removed his trademark sombrero and his t-shirt and dived in. He was down an inordinately long time, and I began to fear that perhaps a large cayman or anaconda had done him in. However, finally, Borro abruptly emerged from the depths, spluttering with laughter. The catfish was under his arm. This remains one of my proudest captures to date. Good on you, Borro!

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Charlie Bisharat’s Poledancer fly is one of my absolute favourite patterns. I first saw it on the wall of Untamed Angling’s houseboat operation on the Rio Marié. The 5/0 Poledancer has a walk-the-dog action reminiscent of the lure angler’s Zara Spook, and it drives big predators like the peacock bass of the Marié absolutely nuts. I enjoyed some incredible sport with Marié’s outsize Tucunare, including some hulking leviathans that topped the 20-pound mark. This stunning fish was caught in a lagoon mouth with my guide Allan Pereira, a young apprentice who was guiding for the very first time because one of the guides had taken ill. We caught any number of monsters that day, and Allan would let out an involuntary yelp of shock and surprise every time one of the monster peacocks abruptly crushed the surface fly, much to the amusement of our indigenous boatman Charlie, who would catch my eye and gurgle with laughter. Allan was the toast of the guide team that evening and is now a world-class guide.

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New Zealand is one of the most spectacular and unspoiled trout fishing destinations in the world. Huge fish swim in countless gin-clear streams, and the lush green forests make for a spectacular backdrop. I made this image of my good friend Al Peake, on a remote South Island stream. We call this river the “Nunya River” Where is it? “Nunya freakin’ business!”

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Every five years or so, New Zealand’s beech trees produce a bumper crop of seeds. Beech trees make up around 70 per cent of the vast forests that cover New Zealand’s South Island, and when these trees drop their seeds, the entire forest floor is carpeted in these juicy, protein-filled snacks. In these years, there is usually a huge explosion in the mouse population. Mice love beechnuts, and when well fed, they are prolific breeders, typically maturing in two months and producing litters every month from then on. By early summer, the number of mice scuttling around the forest floor reaches plague proportions. Needless to say, a good number of these mice find their way into the river. You can guess the rest: a large, hungry brown trout is rarely going to pass up such a big, easy meal. In these special years, the brown trout of New Zealand really pack on weight: three-pounders become five-pounders, six-pounders become nine-pounders, and eight-pounders become … well, eight-pounders become the fish of your dreams.

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Topher Browne asked me to shoot images for his wonderful book Atlantic Salmon Magic. We got on like a house on fire from the start and enjoyed a lot of laughter as well as some cracking Atlantic salmon fishing. Topher gave me a grand tour of the Gaspé peninsula, and we fished some really beautiful spots. My favorite was this one — the Ladder Pool on the Dartmouth River. I caught a chrome-bright, fresh-run Atlantic salmon in this pool that took a skated fly off the surface and did a complete somersault in the same instant before tumbling back into the water. I will never forget it as long as I live.

Matt Harris’ new book, The Fish of a Lifetime, is available now.

Trout school

Fly fishing immersion on the banks of the famed Henry's Fork

by Jeremy Roberts and Tim Romano - Wednesday, Aug 11th, 2021

Images: Jeremy Roberts and Tim Romano. Words: Todd Tanner.

Why are so many of us drawn to fly fishing?

It should be obvious that we don’t fly fish because it’s the easiest way to catch fish, or the most effective. We choose the long rod because it’s more interesting, and more challenging, and because we understand that there’s a direct correlation between the energy and passion we put into our angling and the myriad benefits we ultimately experience.

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It’s hard to fish well, or effectively, without a strong foundation of angling knowledge. Most of us wade through a decades-long process of trial and error, but not everyone has the patience or the temperament for that particular road forward (photo: Jeremy Roberts).

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For the uninitiated, fly fishing can seem like a puzzle. There’s so much to learn … and it’s not always clear how everything fits together (photos: Tim Romano).

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Fly casting is the heart and soul of fly fishing. Good casting opens up an entire world of possibilities. Poor casting holds us back and limits not only our success but our enjoyment. When we internalize the principles of casting, we take the single most important step forward on our angling path (photos: Tim Romano [top], Jeremy Roberts [middle, bottom]).

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In an awful lot of situations, good casting is a prerequisite for success (photos: Jeremy Roberts).

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Food for thought … (photo: Tim Romano).

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Fly fishing is always about the connections (photo: Jeremy Roberts).

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Every school worthy of the name has to find the right balance, whether that’s between instructors and students, or learning and practice, or indoor time and outdoor time (photo: Jeremy Roberts).

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One question to ponder. Are land and water the yin and yang of fly fishing? (photo: Tim Romano)

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How we practice, and where we practice, makes a huge difference (photo: Tim Romano).

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There are always going to be people who’d rather be told what to do. The best anglers, though, want to understand what’s happening on the water, and why (photos: Jeremy Roberts).

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The better the instructors, the more fortunate the students (photo: Jeremy Roberts).

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How do the most intuitive anglers decide which fly to choose? (photo: Jeremy Roberts)

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Newcomers tend to measure success based on very narrow parameters. In reality, success wears many different faces (photos: [from top] Tim Romano, Jeremy Roberts, Tim Romano, Tim Romano).

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Ultimately, the more we put into our angling, the greater our rewards (photos: Tim Romano [top], Jeremy Roberts [bottom]).

The School of Trout holds weeklong classes each August and October on the banks of the famed Henry's Fork in Idaho. Classes are available for both experienced and beginner anglers.

Soul of the Arctic

Fighting for America's greatest wilderness

by Chad Brown - Saturday, Jan 9th, 2021

On December 6, 1960, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Interior created the Arctic National Wildlife Range, protecting nearly 14,000 square miles of the far northeastern corner of the Last Frontier in Alaska. In 1980, the Range was expanded to over 30,000 square miles and renamed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), as it is known today. For millennia, long before the refuge was established, the lands within its borders have nurtured and supported Alaska's native people.

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Remote, rugged, and wild, ANWR is the largest in the National Wildlife Refuge System. It is so vast that, to many, it can seem hard to comprehend (photo: Chad Brown).

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Chad Brown, photographer and president/founder of Soul River Inc., has led over ten deployments, called Cross-Cultural Science Expeditions, to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (photos: Chad Brown).

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The goal of these veteran-led deployments is to expose and educate youth from urban communities to the Arctic and to the mounting issues arising from anthropogenic climate change, examining how these issues affect the land and the indigenous populations that rely on it (photo: Chad Brown).

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Youth members participate in a formal curriculum on the climate change crisis and learn about the direct impacts climate change has on the Arctic Refuge (photo: Chad Brown).

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Expeditions often float over 100 miles through the Arctic National Widlife Refuge, experience the wilderness first-hand, as well as learning rowing, rafting, and outdoor survival skills (photo: Chad Brown).

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And, of course, fishing — with many participants experiencing fly fishing for the first time — chasing Arctic grayling, dolly varden, and more (photo: Chad Brown).

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Deployments also visit the many of the northernmost tribal communities, where they learn about Gwich'in culture and history, and how the impacts of climate change and the politics of the oil and gas industry are affecting the Gwich’in way of life (photos: Chad Brown).

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Part of the mission is providing assistance for tribal communities. Here, Soul River staff and youth members help Gwich'in residents of the Village of Venetie construct a new basketball court and garden plot (photos: Chad Brown).

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Almost 300 miles north of Fairbanks lies another Gwich’in community, Arctic Village (photo: Chad Brown).

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“Charlie,” a Gwich'in hunter, is one the most important and sought after caribou hunters in Arctic Village. Charlie and other Gwich'in hunters have detailed, intimate knowledge of the great caribou herds of the Arctic. Their skills are invaluable in providing food for the Gwich'in community (photos: Chad Brown).

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Often referred to as the "caribou people," the roughly 9,000 Gwich'in that make their home near the Porcupine Caribou herd's migratory routes rely on caribou for food, clothing and tools. Caribou and caribou hunting are also integral to Gwich'in culture and spirituality (credit: Gwich'in Steering Committee).

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A Gwich'in village member processes a caribou in her Arctic Village home (photo: Chad Brown).

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Sewing decorations and making Gwich'in beaver gloves for winter (photo: Chad Brown).

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Gwich'in First Chief James inside a fish camp hut, cleaning fish along the Chandler River, which flows nearby Arctic Village (photo: Chad Brown).

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Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee (photo: Chad Brown).

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ANWR has many stakeholders — whether those from far away places, that come to the refuge to give back, to heal or find peace, or those from cultures who have relied on ANWR's bounty for millennia for their survival and cultural identity — all fighting to keep America's greatest wilderness wild (photo: Chad Brown).

The sporting art of Bob White

For almost 40 years, Bob White's paintings and drawings have immortalized hunting and angling

by Hatch Magazine - Monday, Nov 23rd, 2020

Bob White's artwork has graced over 30 books, adorned magazine covers, and illustrated seemingly countless hunting and angling columns in magazines like Fly Rod & Reel, Sporting Classics, Gray's Sporting Journal, TROUT Magazine and more. For many, Bob's work has been just as outsized an element in the stories that have defined our hunting and angling heritages over the last generation as the voices that have narrated them.

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A Short Cast - Alphonse Island, The Seychelles
24 x 20 inches - oil on canvas

"One of the nicest things about painting fishing scenes are the places I get to visit to do my research. I could hardly say no when I was asked to join some friends and get reference material for a few commissions."

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Musky in the Mist
18 x 16 inches - oil on canvas

"I have a lot of friends who chase river musky with flies, but most of us cast to them from boats. My buddy, Fred, does it a bit differently. He likes to get into the river with the fish and stalk them in their element."

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Waiting
24 x 20 inches - oil on canvas

Anyone who’s ever worked at an Alaskan fly-out fishing lodge will tell you that the most difficult days are those when the ceiling and visibility hover tantalizingly around the, ”I think we can make it!” mark.

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Icon - Alaskan Brown Bear
36 x 30 inches - oil on canvas

"Until you’ve actually experienced it, you’ll never know what it feels like to suddenly come to the realization that you’re not at the top of the food chain. The first time it happens can be a very humbling experience."

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The Supplicant
18 x 14 inches - oil on board

"A good friend sent a photograph and asked if he might commission me to do a painting. Since the photograph came with payment, I could hardly refuse and a deal was struck. The truth be told, ice fishing isn’t exactly what I describe as a passion of mine, but the scene held all the elements for a wonderful painting; mystery, suspense, and a strong, low winter light, casting a long blue shadow, while bathing the distant shoreline in a warm glow."

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Goose Decoys
22 x 18 inches - oil on canvas

"I love to paint color and light reflected, especially in an atmospheric landscape. The pools of reflected light dancing on the dark reflection of the hunter are both challenging and rewarding to render."

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Brown Trout Head Study
6 x 6 inches - oil on board

"Sometimes it’s the small studies that really turn out the best. While this tiny painting would hardly fill up any space on a wall, there’s a commanding freshness to it that I really love — a freshness that’s sometimes hard to achieve in larger paintings."

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Getting ready for Tarpon
19 x 17 inches - pencil on archival paper

"The anticipation that grows daily before any fishing trip is always half the fun of the experience. This is particularly true if the trip is to some far-off place where the fish are big. This drawing was done before our annual trek to the Florida Keys to visit with friends and chase tarpon."

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Early Birds
36 x 28 inches - oil on canvas

"Where I grew up, 'bird hunting' meant chasing bobwhite quail. My father was a bird hunter, and I believe it was his crowning glory in life to have a son he could name, “Bob White”. We recently visited his grave, in the small town of Lively Grove, where my mother was born. The small church cemetery is surrounded by the very fields we’d walked together a half a century earlier. As I opened the door the truck, a covey of bobwhite quail began to call all around us."

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The Bridge Pool - III
11 x 9 inches - oil on board

"Sometimes, successfully executing an illustration assignment requires a bit of creativity on the part of the artist. I had great reference photos of a friend fishing a stream in the Minnesota Driftless, but the story called for a bridge. No worries; I transported the bridge from a river in Argentina and plopped it into the scene!"

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Dark Water - Rainbow Trout
24 x 20 inches - oil on board

"Good friends have a delightful way of circling back into our lives. One day, a few years ago, I received a package from a fishermen I’d guided years ago in Alaska. Inside was a photograph of a beautiful rainbow being admired one last time, before its release. My friend had caught the fish and taken the shot just before I let it slip from my hands. I thought those hands looked familiar."

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Odd Duck
14 x 13.5 inches - watercolor on archival paper

"It was rare to shoot a scoter where I guided duck hunters in Alaska. It wasn’t a particularly colorful bird in its plumage of subtle greys and black, but the bill was a fascinating shape and looked to be carved of ivory, which had been dyed yellow, red, black and white. I thought this scoter to be an elegant bird and decided to paint it. It was hung on the side of a shed at the lodge and I sketched it that evening, when the low autumnal light created fantastical shadows."

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Glide
44 x 32 inches - oil on canvas

"There's a time, late in a summer evening, when shadows overtake the land and colors begin to mute. It's during these few minutes that I find myself particularly quieted. Speech becomes unnecessary, even irreverent. I drift on a reflected sky and measure meaning in the water that drips from my oars."

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All Business
8 x 10 inches - oil on board

"I was very fortunate to be invited to my friend’s duck club in the Sacramento Valley, in the shadow of Sutter Butte. The weather was balmy; not exactly what you’d like for hunting, the light was good and I got plenty of reference material for painting. This small panel of my friend’s retriever was painted as a gift to thank him for a wonderful experience."

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The Way It’s Remembered
24 x 20 inches - oil on board

"What we remember about our time afield has little to do with the number of birds we shoot. Rather, our most poignant recollections are made up of the little things; the warmth of a low autumnal sun, the sound of golden leaves twisting in the breeze, and the ripe smell of an aspen copse in the evening. If we’re luck, there might be the heady aroma of a spent shot shell or two, and the weight of a well-shot bird in our vest. And, always, we’ll remember the love of our dog."

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Color and Light reflected - Brown Trout
30 x 24 inches - oil on canvas

"I love to paint fish; each one of them is a jewel and a joy to render. This is particularly true when the scene includes water and reflected light. This little brown trout was caught in the Minnesota Driftless, and a photograph captured seconds before it’s release."

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A Place in the Choir
8.25 x 9.5 inches - pencil on archival paper

"We all love our bird dogs, but in some very rare instances, the bond that develops between a man and his dog transcends comprehension. Such was the case, with my friend, and his English setter. Few words were ever spoken in the field, sometimes with just a brief look, came an understanding. A friend like that is hard to lose."

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Just Watching
12 x 10 inches - oil on board

"What’s remembered about a day in afield, or in the marsh has more to do with what we’ve seen and whom you’ve shared it with, than the number of birds hanging over our shoulder. If I’m walking out at the end of the day with an empty bird strap, I often think to myself, all of the fun… and none of the work!"

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The Last Ptarmigan
16 x 18 inches - oil on board

"After 16 summer seasons in Alaska, we’d decide to make a go of it with my artwork and start a family. This pair of ptarmigan were taken on my last hunt as a guide. Our Gordon setter, Mac, found them in the high tundra, on a windblown mountainside, well above the timber line."

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Hazy Day in the Driftless
36 x 30 inches - oil on canvas

"My good friend John Gierach and I often share a bit of time on the water, and of course, I occasionally paint him doing what he loves to do. Many of these painting are used to illustrate, “ Convergence”, our collaborative column in TROUT. Others, like this painting are used as cover-art for his books."

The Classic Sporting Art of Bob White is available from Bookshop.org, Amazon, or wherever books are sold. 300 limited edition signed copies are also available at bobwhitestudio.com.