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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.

Dorsal view of a Zapada cinctipes (Nemouridae) (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
Nymphs of this species were fairly common in late-winter kick net samples from the upper Yakima River. Although I could not find a key to species of Zapada nymphs, a revision of the Nemouridae family by Baumann (1975) includes the following helpful sentence: "2 cervical gills on each side of midline, 1 arising inside and 1 outside of lateral cervical sclerites, usually single and elongate, sometimes constricted but with 3 or 4 branches arising beyond gill base in Zapada cinctipes." This specimen clearly has the branches and is within the range of that species.
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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Lateral view of a Male Attenella attenuata (Ephemerellidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
This specimen came from the same hatch as a female.
Oldredbarn
Oldredbarn's profile picture
Novi, MI

Posts: 2600
Oldredbarn on Jun 8, 2010June 8th, 2010, 10:39 am EDT
This third picture from the underside I find interesting. On my last trip to Au Sable in MI in late May 2010 I stopped to sit on some instream structure and was floored by the number of nymphs crawling around on my wading boots. There is always something there but this particular time the activity was heavy.

One of the nymphs stuck out from the others and had this same greenish color as this dun. All the others seemed very dark, the typical browns to black.

I was in fairly fast water that was hip deep in spots and maybe deeper towards the middle of the stream...Anyway it caught my eye and I should of hung on to it or took a photo.

It was very warm up there for that time in May...

One of the nights a friend and I were trying to figure out what was going on. I stepped out in to the bubble stream with a small siene and again was floored about the number of bugs being caught in it. I think it may have been one of those "benthic drift" situations we have all read about...There was everything in large numbers but very small stuff and for the most part mangled up...Or so it seemed...

These may have been smallish spinners, but no feeding fish interested...It was frustrating to say the least...I was showing primo water to someone who had never been there before...I was trying to show it off and the fish were snubbing their noses at us...I guess they weren't even doing that really...They were probably stuffing themselves underwater on all the activity...

Just obsevations here.

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

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