Catching toads in frog water

I planned to go camping outside Escalante, UT this weekend, but fate had other plans. Sam has been frequenting this stream all month, I was finally able to join him. I started with a crawdad pattern, but my 9' #6 was a bit much for this small stream, so I went back to the jeep and switched to my trusty 8.5' #3. I caught fish on nymphs (scud & red CJ), elk hair caddis, and brown buggers. The fish below hit Sam's nymph and after a short fight came unbuttoned...the amazing thing is not 30 seconds later, he went for the same nymph and this time it stuck!

I caught mostly bows and Sam had a 50/50 brown/bow split. A couple fish proved to be picky, but after multiple fly changes, I seemed to gain the upper hand. Sam spotted the fish below holding in about 18" of water. I made a few casts without much reaction. It nipped at my fly a couple times but nothing aggressive. I finally pushed it's buttons enough to get a take. It measure just over 22"!