Mr. Natural

x2 on the battery pack idea.

holy freaking smokes! are you serious? thats awesome. Serious about what? Some hard core bowhunters probably consider rifle cheating.

All rifle. I think a guy would be hard pressed to hunt these bucks with a bow any other way than sitting water. They seem to stay in more flat-ish areas (flats and gently rolling ridges) with thick cover that wouldn't be friendly to spot and stalk. All these bucks required plenty of wear on the ol' vibrams.

He has some fighting scars on his face, but I think what you are talking about are jaw muscle contours in the particular form the taxidermist used. Thanks for all the comments guys!

All were from 37B.

My neighbor has also taken a couple of nice desert muleys. He got this one the day after I got the first one in my original post: Here are the two mounts side by side: Here is one he got two years later:

Yeah, that's kinda how I feel about it. I'm all about facts and common sense. I have been fishing West Clear Creek for decades and have seen some changes. But the brown trout population is something that has not changed for the worse, at least by my observation. If anything it has improved since I first started fishing there in the 80's. I used to catch way more rainbows than browns, Now it is the opposite, last time I fished it last year I caught almost exclusively browns, only two tiny rainbows. Seems to me the rainbows need releasing. Furthermore, I do not fish often, when I do it is only in the small creeks, and I usually release everything. That brown was the first trout I have eaten in years. I don't feel bad at all about having one for lunch! I have a feeling the bears eat way more brown trout than I do.

Been living and fishing in AZ for over 4 decades, and this is the first I have heard of there being an issue eating a brown trout. If you have some info to pass along, I'll give it some consideration. From the G&F site: "Exotic from Europe. Introduced in Arizona in 1931." - so a non-native species. "The meat has a pinkish or yellowish color and tastes good." - not a word about them being endangered or anything.

Not quite ATL, but pretty close...a matched set: Some others from various years:

I have a tenkara rod and have taken it out a few times. I really like it for the light weight and simplicity, great as a backpack rod and it is perfect for the small trout creeks here in AZ. The first success I had was on West Clear Creek, caught a few browns:

I suppose this contest is long over, but here is my entry. Found this little dude in 6A:

I killed this bull in unit 27 some years ago. The right antler was typical, but the left was pretty bladed up top.