A fly fisher is lucky to have a mentor that can pass along the secrets of noticing, the way of casting and landing your line on the water for the good drift without effort, the spots where trout wait. I had flyfished for twenty years before Dick Laws put me in contact with my first steelhead on the fly, and I would not miss a chance to fish with him anywhere. He lives in Montana now and his favorite water is the Taylor Fork of the Gallatin.

The first time I came through Montana, passing time at the Corral Bar I met a man with a bandage on his head who showed me the newspaper clipping about a grizzly attack up on the Taylor Fork. We had seen a Grizzly in the corner of Yellowstone Park less than a mile from where we fish. With an acute awareness of smells and sounds in the breeze, five of us fished up the lower three miles. There were native Cutthroat trout and a few rainbows, and it was tricky to sneak up on them.

While we stopped for a picnic Dick continued to fish, and I snuck up behind him and sketched. Over the winter I worked it into this etching.