The Underwater World of Trout

Several years ago, a friend of mine was telling me about a video seminar he saw at a local Trout Unlimited meeting given by a man from New Jersey who liked to film trout in the water. "Unbelievable," he said. "The underwater shots are amazing." As the years went by, I heard this sentiment from more and more people who were lucky enough to see these presentations, all given with the same "you really gotta see" emotion. Well—I really wanted to see them—but I'm not a member of any clubs where this man would be presenting.

That man from New Jersey is named Wendell "Ozzie" Ozefovich, and he has become somewhat of a legend among those who have seen or heard about his video presentations. Lucky for the rest of us, he has made these seminars available on DVD. I gotta say—it was a long wait for me—but it was well worth it. The buildup was justified.

The first DVD, Discovery, is a compilation of chapters on different subjects dealing with wild trout—including a fascinating look at how a one-eyed trout can survive in the fast-paced world of a trout stream. However, for me, that was not the highlight of the DVD. The highlight for me was the segment dealing with a trout stream along a highway that was at risk from road construction. Years after the construction was complete, the "new" stream still holds wild trout. I can only imagine the sense of satisfaction felt by Ozzie and the others. That so many people came together to make sure the trout would be protected is a strong statement that maybe the future of our fisheries is in good hands after all. I was also interested to see the very first footage Ozzie shot in a trout stream, surprised at how many small wild brook trout he was able to observe with his camera.

For those who want to see big fish—and lots of them—there is a chapter on sea-run trout during their spawning runs. I don't know for sure, but I think some of this footage was filmed in Connetquot State Park on Long Island, which gets good runs of sea-run trout of three species—brown, rainbow, and brook trout.

The second DVD, Feeding Lies, is a master course on how trout survive in the water—what they eat, how they move, how they position themselves, and what we can learn from how they "rise" and "take." There is some simply amazing camera work here. There's one spot where the camera is just barely above the surface of a shallow riffle, and you can see a trout's head breaking through as it rises to take spinners. Then the camera slowly dips below the water, and you see the whole fish and how it is working in the currents, rising with just a shift in fin position.

Even cooler about that scene is the camera just below the surface—you can see the spinners coming toward the camera, just as a fish would see them! A trico spinner is a tiny bug, but they look like big black blobs on the surface of that stream—easily detectable.

There is simply too much information in these DVDs to condense into a single review. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a couple of hours of moving pictures like these worth? More than I can guess. These are not your typical "Bob goes fishing" DVDs. These are videos of fish—doing what they do in a natural setting—and we as anglers can certainly learn from every frame. Ozzie takes us into *The Underwater World of Trout* as has never been done before. Global class? Oh yeah.