Mystic and Hickmanimal await the floods of Deschutes steelhead.

Photo: Rob Elam

Somewhere in Alaska mining non-smolt, leopard rainbows.

Photo: Tim Romano

They eat swarms of perch fry under the ice, and I've heard of old-timers catching them on worms and dog food at Clark Canyon on the Ruby and near Park City on the Yellowstone...

Photo: Greg Keeler

While this could well be considered Smolt of Every Other Month, trout season has been upon us here in a land where runoff rules all and the hatches we do get tend to usurp the mundane: deadlines, weddings, renewing truck tabs, remembering to eat... the small stuff.

As it is, we are happy to announce the next round of SMOTM with our partner Smith Optics, offering a pair of Shelters, one of their finest shades, to the winner.

Back at it, Bryan McAnulty has been on the smolt hunt...

Every day with Avery is running blind channels into the abyss, flipping boats, using his body to free anchors, and one morning backing his dory directly through the window of a movie rental store.

Hoovering lips after eating a black egg-sucking leech.

Photo: Will Rice

Rooster Comb

Photo: Aaron Otto