Thought I would share.

[Old Hat 0]

This is from last summer. I've been cleaning out my notebook. I'm no photographer, just a point and shoot, but found these fellas alongside the Lochsa River in central Idaho. Just a cool find. Both were still moving around so it was hard to get the lighting and such much better.

 

 

 

Then a little feel for winter steelhead fishing in NE Oregon.

 

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

cool shots strange seeing that snake eating that fish the way he did usually they eat head first

[sniksoh 0]

i think they were just cuddling.

[njmagill 0]

i thought it was a three mile island snakefish at first glance

[Futzer 0]

Thanks Old Hat, My fingers got numb just looking at the steelheading photo. I think I may have to come north again and do that. Cheers, Jeff

[Roll Q___Cast 0]

Nice photos OLD HAT! Is that a modest sized garter snake making a meal out of that gobie(?) or are they normally that size there in Idaho? It appears to be a 2 1/2 to 3 footer judging by the first photo. We rarely see garters get that large/long here in Ontario; usually 1 1/2 to 2 feet. It appears to be more along the size of one of our local rat snake, milk snake or eastern hog nosed. Glad to see he's feeding on that invasive fish; we normally try to feed them to the gulls as we catch them up here...

 

As for photo #3 BRRRR!!! :crazy: Hope you kept the hand warmer kindled and a thermos of hot coffee close at hand... I trust you fared well on that outing? :thumbsup:

 

Thanks for sharing...Tight ties and lines.

 

Jerome

[Old Hat 0]

Nice photos OLD HAT! Is that a modest sized garter snake making a meal out of that gobie(?) or are they normally that size there in Idaho? It appears to be a 2 1/2 to 3 footer judging by the first photo. We rarely see garters get that large/long here in Ontario; usually 1 1/2 to 2 feet. It appears to be more along the size of one of our local rat snake, milk snake or eastern hog nosed. Glad to see he's feeding on that invasive fish; we normally try to feed them to the gulls as we catch them up here...

 

As for photo #3 BRRRR!!! :crazy: Hope you kept the hand warmer kindled and a thermos of hot coffee close at hand... I trust you fared well on that outing? :thumbsup:

 

Thanks for sharing...Tight ties and lines.

Jerome

 

It was a long snake, don't remember exactly but the "native sculpin" was about 2" across the head. The sculpins have very sharp stiff fin rays and most of the biologists I have shown this photo to don't believe the snake probably made it through the event. They don't have the ability to regurgitate a prey item once they start to consume it. Between the dorsal fin digging into the snakes insides and the pectoral fins keeping the fish from being swallow any more the snake is probably a gonner.

 

The outing was cold - but we did manage a couple.

 

njmagill - My son actually found the snake and came running scared saying he thought it was a creature with two heads.

[Peterjay 0]

Great captures OH. MY first reaction was the same as your son's. ("This guy must live near a nuclear power plant") You got the exposure as well as you could under the circumstances. About all you can do when shooting from the hip like that is to get the subject and let the rest of the picture worry about itself. The biologists' view on the snake's fate isn't surprising. I found a pint-sized largemouth bass once that had pulled a similar stunt with a small catfish and had died with the catfish lodged in its throat. Not many second chances in nature for dumb moves.

[Tybugs1 0]

Great pictures! Liked them all. The second one is my favorite. I'm just learning so not much to add in that area. I would second Peterjay about exposure. I thought it was great and not sure you had all that much time. I find that sometimes spontanous animals in a spontanous wild world are hard to shoot with a camera.

 

Again great pictures