An ongoing gallery of sweet shots that come into my inbox through the fine filter of TFS Travel. These are photos that make me go, whoa.
Me old winter stompin grounds. Turnagain Pass, Alaska. Photo: Joshua Foreman
Photo: Sharkmark. "found a dude in town with a gyrfalcon. chunky mamma. duck death."
Photo: Roddy Hall. "The tiger fishing was great, you should try it some time. Also great game viewing, with elephants, lions, buffalo etc all seen while fishing. A couple of photos attached!"
Photo: Roddy Hall
Photo: Roddy Hall
Mike VanWormer, guide at Frontier Far West Lodge on the Bulkley River, writes, "Tom Derry of the Native fish Society landed this beauty that taped out at 41 ½ x 21 ½ on a (“tight” tape!) Man…. I hate my job!"
"With the help of his feisty cat, Igor Shpilenok won the Urban and Garden Wildlife category with this shot. He spent five months as a ranger in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka in the east of Russia, and took his cat Ryska with him for company."It's a very remote place and there were lots of animals - bears, foxes, wolverines - living near my cabin," he told BBC News."The cat was really jealous about me. If I started to look at the animals she would attack them. Just like woman," he smiled."Maybe she thought I was her pet."But the animals were curious about the area's new residents, and drawn by cooking smells from the cabin. The foxes in particular would visit every day. "When they came within 20m, that was her boundary and chased them. It was really funny - foxes were climbing trees to get away from the cat."
Photo: Aaron Otto
October 6, 2009. If you traced the short line between the center of the spiral northeasterly to the mainland of the Alaska Peninsula, you would hit my friend Bill, who, oblivious to the impending doom, is casting away for steelhead as I write. ...wish I was there.
After 50 years of steelhead flyfishing in Northern California, Sandy Watts picks up a 2 handed rod. Photo: Justin Miller
Diving dog in pool. Photo: Jason Lozano
The Mosquito Trilogy – Yokanga River, Russia, July 2009
Photo: Tothman
Photo: Ryan Peterson
Russian mosquitos do abide by the rules of DEET (yes, it works, and no, it doesn't hurt your skin.) Apply liberally and keep fishing. Photo: Ryan Peterson
(um...what? Sorry, I was distracted. Did you say something?) Apre fishing, Bahamas. Photo: Sharkmark
Volcano in the Kuril islands blows a hole in the sky. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1195215/Stunning-pictures-hole-clouds-astronauts-witness-volcano-eruption-International-Space-Station.html
A brace of AK sockeyes. The best food on Earth. Photo: Taro Satake
Point Lay celebrates first whale in 72 years. "Although the bowhead was harvested by Point Lay whalers May 5, 2009, the celebration will continue June 26 with the first Nalukataq blanket toss feast in 72 years. The village of around 250 people expect a large contingent of visiting neighbors for the one-day celebration." Photo: Chad Bernick. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/marine/story/831081.html
Baja-ja-ja! Justin Crump gets some tail. Photo: Matt Jones, http://www.mcjphotography.com
Bonefish larvae, Turneffe Island, Belize. Photo courtesy Bonefish and Tarpon Trust
Steelhead from tiny creeks in the ancient rainforests of Southeast Alaska are perhaps the most elegant of their species. Photo courtesy Tyson Fick and Jason Hooley, http://www.chromemagnumman.wordpress.com.
Caddo Lake, Louisiana, aka "Monster Central" to bigfoot hunters...and sacalait fishermen. Photo: Jason Hamblin
Still life in Kamchatka. Photo: Eben Jordan
Swine Flu, Swine Flu, SWINE FLU!!! Say it ten times fast, freak yourself out, then forget about it and go fishing. Photo courtesy Casa Blanca Lodge, Mexico
Antoinette Potier, 5, of Dixon, CA reaches for a rainbow trout in one of the new 400 gallon viewing tanks during the grand opening of the new nature center at Lake Solano Regional Park. Photo: Mike Greener
Cock fight. Guam. Photo: Sharkmark
A nice'n from Isle Holbox, Yucatan. Guide, Sandflea writes, "Ok My friend. Check this picture. 70 inches long for 49 incheswide, 210 pounds. Mr.sandflea." Those are scales laying on the deck. Photo courtesy Sandflea.
"Yo, Ryan, welcome back from the Yucatan, The Tiger Muskies were on the prowl in this lake that I know of, and here is a pic of one that I finally caught after throwing forty shots at them laid up and crusing in the shallows. After fighting pretty hard (kind of like a super k, the fight) it came close and I put a boga in its face. I then took some pics and when done while pulling the Boga back out it bit the shit out of me and I bled and bled........... talk to you, Frank"
"An eruption of Mt. Redoubt seen at sunset from the cockpit of a DC-6 flying over Cook Inlet near Anchroage, Alaska on March 31, 2009. Photography kindly provided by Bryan Mulder - pilot and photographer." Check out a ton of other amazing photos of this event here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/alaskas_mount_redoubt.html
Here is a picture of some snow geese. Photo: Bill Engber
Thousands of golden rays are seen here migrating en masse off the northern tip of the Yucatan. Photographer, Sandra Critelli writes, "It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind." Photo: Sandra Critelli
March 3, 2009. Just a really big permit caught yesterday, that's all. 41.5" length x 32" girth. Photo courtesy Dick Cameron, "This thing is estimated in the 40+ pound range." http://www.palometaclub.com
"Nazar at the Big Eddy - I snapped this image during the first week guiding at Zendzur. ...i am pretty sure this image is one of the finest of all season." Photo: Donovan Dums
That's about as big as they get in Chile. Kris Kennedy with a nice'n from the Rio a';sldjf;djf. http://www.patagonian-basecamp.com
"The tundra turns red around the Kronatskaya River and volcano in September." Photo: Igor Shpilenok. http://www.shpilenok.com
"Sockeye salmon spawn from July through February in Kuril Lake on South Kamchatka." Photo: Igor Shpilenok, http://www.shpilenok.com
Seychelles alert. Ashton Breitkreutz, expert in the art of neck fly rod ballancing, and a giant trevally. Photo: Jako Lucas
Leika dogs are bred to hate all other fur bearers. Don't let alpha male, Grey's stoic pose fool you. See his sister's handywork in the photo below. Photo: Ben Knight
Photo: Jack Campbell
Sockeyes for days. Hoodoo River estuary, AK. Photo: Art Goodsel
So clean. (The king salmon, not Mike Mercer.) Photo: Art Goodsel
Poon crusing coral. British Virgin Islands. Photo: Travis Rummel
Autumn cast. Photo: Michael Caranci
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Whoa. The most amazing body of wildlife photography I’ve ever seen. Just go here and surf the galleries: http://www.miguellasa.com/
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Punta Allen dock, Yucatan. Google Earth.
Kateri Clay lurvs the Kispiox. Photo: Mark Shannon
Karimsky Volcano, Kamchatka. I tracked down the NYC agent for the Brazilian photographer, Sebastiao Salgado about getting a print. They're $12,000. Don't really have that on me right now, but if anyone's looking for Christmas gift ideas for me... Photo: Sebastiao Salgado
Adam Henderson gets a handle on some Sustut girth. Photo: Rob Toth
Photo courtesy Rob Toth
Photo: Rob Toth
Photo: Rob Toth
Lauren Oakes, Trout Unlimited's chief in charge of banging her head against the wall of the Pebble Mine Project in AK on behalf of us all, hoists one. She writes 'Lower Talarik Creek baby. A pebble helicopter flew over just after taking the photo. 29", 16.5" girth.' Photo: Tim Bristol
I hear some people like to go flyfishing for redfish. Photo: Travis Rummel
Along with the two shots below, this completes the gross trifecta. Nice eye juice. Photo courtesy Dave Jones, Alpenview Lodge, Kodiak, AK
A friend just returned from a surf trip in remote Indonesia and got to chop it up with the locals. Their hot dogs are different than ours. Photo: Rick Sharkmark.
"Doug Killam, associate fisheries biologist in the state Department of Fish and Game's Red Bluff office, holds up a massive Chinook salmon carcass found late last week on Battle Creek near Anderson. DFG scientists estimate the fish weighed 85 pounds dead, and even more when it was alive." Photo and caption courtesy Redding Searchlight and CDF&G.
Tsiu beach, AK. Photo: Tim Landis
10/1/08 Ok, I give up. I can tell this page is evolving into straight fish porn. Nevertheless, these photos meet the qualifier of making me say whoa out loud. Here are two images of steelhead taken last week – the first week of the first season on the newly discovered Hoodoo River, AK. The alert level is set to CHROME.
The see-throughiest tail ever. The mother of all prizes has got to be wild steelhead caught in a virgin river. Photo: Paul Senior
ohmygawdohmygawdohmygawd. Photo: Alan Senior
Suh. Weat. Sweet. James Montesi gets his chrome on elsewhere in AK. Photo: Richie Gruber
Amphibian populations are crashing from the Arctic to the Amazon because their skin is porous and they soak up all the toxins that humans continue to put into the world. The western toad, like this juvenile, though, still thrives in localized parts of Northern California. They're so thick along some river banks it's hard not to step on them. Photo: Ryan Peterson
The fall steelhead season is on. It's party time. Anonymous.
I “I GOT A HALIBUT!”
9/4/08 Uh-oh. I was going to avoid grip and grin shots here, but these are too impressive. Wild, native resident rainbows taken from Kamchatka’s Zhupanova River during the last two weeks. These are the fellows I was after, but didn’t trick, when I was on the Zhup in July (see post: Kamchatka ’08, part 2.)
Scott Tucker touches Super Kunzha love. Photo courtesy Scott Tucker
This isn't the kind of smile you made when you were a kid and you had to sit for family portraits. Ward Malloy poses with a member of the Johnson Family. Photo: Tom Malloy
This is the same fish. Photo: Alexi Boyanowski
This is not the same fish, but it was caught from the same spot. (Yikes.) Photo: Tom Malloy
Kevin Dunn got lots of fish holding practice. Photo: Bill Delwiche
Photo: Bill Delwhiche
Photo: Bill DelwichePhoto: Bill Delwiche
Photo: Bill Delwiche
Photo: Bill Delwiche
Bill Delwiche hoists Hawg Johnson's wee sister. Photo: Kevin Dunn
Photo: Kevin Dunn
Umm... Photo: Bil Delwiche
An unnamed Kamchatka spring creek. Odds are there are trout in there. Photo: Bill Delwiche
The Turusheva River has now been thoroughly explored after 5 expeditions in three years. It is a sweetheart. Photo: Bill Delwiche
Photo: Bill Delwiche
On exploratory float trips in Kamchatka we always take a chainsaw and and axe becuse you never know if you are going to have to pass through a logjam. This is a photo of the chainsaw and axe that we used this year. Also we take coolers. Photo: Bill Delwiche
Crazy Kamchatka moose shed. Photo: Bill Delwiche
Stephen Lodge gets the big pull on the Hoodoo River, AK. The original file name for this photo was, "Shane and Stephen with fish that ran 150 yds to the furthest bush at the corner.JPG" Photo: Michael Holden.
David Leake, of Tailwaters Flyfishing Co., sees what's up in Isle Holbox, Yucatan. Photo: Cody Bell
Check it, yo. www.tailwatersflyfishing.com
the big pull 
Whoa – indeed! Keep ’em coming. Thank you.
Sick stuff Ryan, I especially like the “coolers”….
Some great images
Dude….we need more! Come back soon!