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Artistic view of a Male Pteronarcys californica (Pteronarcyidae) (Giant Salmonfly) Stonefly Adult from the Gallatin River in Montana
Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica

The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.

27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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Jmd123 has attached these 20 pictures. The message is below.
Beaver pond in upper section of stream - had lowest diversity, loads of midges & worms, beaver poop!
Let's see what I got in here!
Travis is ready to ZZZAP 'em!
Juicy looking habitat
"Do you realize that you have an unregistered nuclear reactor on your back?" (from the original Ghostbusters)
"Get 'em! GIT THAT ONE!"
Hey, we got a few!
Got some more!
"Well, Jonathon, what are they?"
Lauren takes a look
When in doubt, pull out the book!
Sorting them out...we caught a total of 283 fish!  From tiny minnows to suckers almost 10" long...
Ready to attack the next site!
Moving upstream, a good shot of the general habitat
Not big or deep water, yet loaded with life
Crown densiometer, for measuring canopy cover
Mike Osier, our main GPS guy, standing on the dam that will be removed or repaired
Dana, our UXO (unexploded ordnance!) guide, who made sure we didn't get blown up from old munitions (we saw duds!)
Getting the gear together in the morning
Lauren, our Environmental Scientist, looking fresh and beautiful before she goes out and gets all dirty & sweaty & etc. in the field
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Mar 2, 2021March 2nd, 2021, 4:15 am EST
Well, Affiliated Researchers was awarded a stream evaluation project in support of a possible dam removal on an old military reservation in southern Indiana (the report is not yet public so no more specific location details are given). We conducted the first phase of the field work last October, collecting data on water quality and stream habitat, as well as electroshocking for fish (all released) and collecting benthic macroinvertebrate samples. Well, we found 81 identifiable genera (NOT counting Chironomidae, yet!) of benthic macroinvertebrates and 16 fish species, all in this tiny little creek that averages 6-12" deep and was maybe 3 feet in a couple of beaver ponds! We have almost completed editing the final report on last fall's field work and if possible I will eventually provide a link to it once it becomes public.

In the meantime, here's a bunch of photos of the field work and the beautiful environment we were doing it in. Enjoy! And there's another bunch of this coming up for us in May, were are going back & expanding this work to include reference streams, periphyton (algae!), and I may be smashing midge heads for generic identification (did this during my never-finished PhD work in Missouri). Lots of work & lots of $$$ for me this year!!!

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

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