This one was surprisingly straightforward to identify. The lack of a sclerite at the base of the lateral hump narrows the field quite a bit, and the other options followed fairly obvious characteristics to Clostoeca, which only has one species, Clostoeca disjuncta.
Wiflyfisher on Jun 1, 2008June 1st, 2008, 12:22 am EDT
It is about that time to start getting ready for the brown drake hatch. Wondering what others find as the most effective brown drake emerger pattern? I use a wiggle nymph at times, but is time-consuming and tedious tying wiggle nymphs. Suggestions?
Martinlf on Jun 2, 2008June 2nd, 2008, 12:23 pm EDT
I had good luck with a big Quigley style emerger with Green Drakes on the Delaware one year. I used an olive marabou feather for the abdomen, dubbing for the thorax, and a big forward angled deerhair wing with a prominent stubb of the deer hair butts behind. Twitching it in the film produced action.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
Wiflyfisher on Jun 4, 2008June 4th, 2008, 10:36 am EDT
Louis, thanks!
BTW, the other day I found 6 plastic containers each containing dyed rabbit fur (red, white, blue, yellow, & black) that Natasi gave me years ago. Their original dyed furs that you then mixed to make their spectrumized fur blends. It has to be around 25 years old. :)
Here is a piggie I caught last Friday night on a #10 Brown Drake Comapra-dun on the middle main stem Delaware. The main stem and the East Branch have huge emergences of simulans. Often the spinner is far more important than the duns that often hatch sporadically all day long.
Martinlf on Jun 5, 2008June 5th, 2008, 1:17 am EDT
Nice fish, Matt.
John, that is neat about the fur. Jeff of the DRC tells me they blend up the colors when they need them, weighing the fur to get the right amounts. I don't think they use black anymore. The formulae are printed on the dubbing packs.
--Louis
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
Wiflyfisher on Jun 5, 2008June 5th, 2008, 4:58 am EDT
I probably have a lifetime supply of their Spectrum pre-blended dubbing packs too. I use them all the time. I blend my own as well, but not too often. A lesson I learned from Natasi was check the blends wet before using. Fur blends tend to darken when wet, which is pretty obvious, but I often forget about it while tying.
I was looking at the 2008 photo gallery for the DRC, there are a lot of nice trout pics. The DR is still one of my favorite rivers. I imagine it gets a lot more pressure than it did back in the early 80's.