Three Men, Three Rivers.

This half-hour paean to the glories of wild rivers and wild trout is presented in the form of a Holy Trinity of its finest examples: the intermountain West's Madison, Big Hole, and Yellowstone. Each is seen through the eyes of perhaps it staunchest champion.

George Grant is a railroader who lost his job and went fishing--and tying flies and guiding anglers on the superb Big Hole. The river wells up in the Bitterroo Mountains, runs past the town of Wisdom, and has tutored generations of trouters--with Grant's help.

Bud Lily is to the Madison River what Grant is to Big Hole. A guide and fly-sho owner for 35 years, Lily has spent much of his life campaigning for special regulations--including catch-and-release laws--to sustain the Madison's matchless fishing.

The Yellowstone River runs wild and free for 678 miles from its headwaters in the national park to where it melds with the Missouri. Many years ago, a colleg professor from the East was driving along the upper Yellowstone when his car broke down. That's where he stayed, and the river and the land through which it courses are the better for it. The late Dan Bailey was a quiet man, but a giant in the effort to prevent the damming of wild western rivers.

The fisher-creatures in this classy documentary film include the human variety as well as eagles, otters, and bears. The sometimes brooding, sometimes beatifi Rockies are presented in their best spring and autumn finery. And the viewer is aware that simply to be on one of these three free-flowing rivers is to touch something eternal.