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3. Centipedes

I've been noticing an abnormally large number of centipedes (millipedes?) on streamside rocks recently. They are a little more than an inch in length and are reddish brown on top (with tan bands between body segments) and tan on the bottom. Today they were on the rocks so thick you couldn't avoid stepping on them if you wanted to.

I suppose I'm less interested in knowing what they are and more interested in knowing if trout feed on them. Anyone know?

Thanks,
Shawn

Shawn-

Millipedes. Yes, I believe trout will (opportunistically) feed on them. Incidentally, as I recall, they are without sight. However, they are not deterred by a small stream, and will simply crawl across its bottom to get to where the want to be.

Very good, Roger - thank you. I did notice many of them underwater, both drifting and crawling. I also noticed several riding downstream in the surface film. I will tie up an imitation promptly.

-Shawn

I don't think I've ever seen one of these in the water. The only time I've ever seen them in any numbers is after a good rain, but still not as many as you describe. Maybe this is like the flying ant "hatch" that we're all prepared for, but rarely get to fish.

shawn
maybe a bucktail bodied inchworm type fly that used to be popular before foam became regularly used for terrestrials? i used these with great success in the dog days on the paradise and below during the late '70s and early '80s but then i stopped seeing them so i really don't have any of these flies anymore.
i'm interested to see what you come up with as i'll be spending a few days in your area next week. b.j. makes a good point - was this before the huge amount of rain you had recently or after?
i guess i'll put the trico tying on hold (i already have more than i'll use in a lifetime but who knows...) and spin some of these up
tony

Taxon,

They maybe unable to see, but they can sure creep one out! I get the "house" variety and have had an on going "pack" with them..."You stay in the garage or outside and you and I are cool. Come in to the living area of the home and I have to deal with you."

They have that weird insect "sixth-sense" kind of thing going on that has convinced me that insects are aliens amongst us. If they can't see they sure make up for it with the other senses. When the light goes on they freeze and they seem to know I'm heading for the bathroom and a handfull of toilet paper to nab them with...Once they bolt they are gone and they somehow can dissolve in to a corner where they almost seem to disappear!

Now you guys are telling me that they are "hardy" enough to crawl across a stream! How am I going to sleep?!

Sometime in the 90's I was fishing one evening on the Clam river near my grandmothers place near Cadillac MI...There was a large willow leaning over the river and I had to bend down to go under it. I found my self up under this canopy of willow limbs and when my eyes re-focused I was eye-to-eye with a zillion hunting spiders...Large ones! We all just seemed to pause there for a moment, they looking like they were going to bolt any second, me wondering if I could retard an urge to scream...I continued on and have been a little cautious going under trees ever since...

Roger...Are you sure that these guys (insects) are not somehow smarter than we are and are just playing dumb waiting for our species to peter itself out and the planet will then be all theirs?

Spence

I have read somewhere that they dine on spiders...Hows that for a creepy image...While you and I are off in dreamland this epic life-and-death battle is taking place in the corner of our bedrooms...Does anyone remember "Morgus Presents" or "The Ghoul"?

Tony,

How about a Wooly Worm like fly tied on a long shank hook with palmered grizzly hackle? Maybe a soft webby feather? Hell! If they are underwater you will need a weighted version...Heavy enough to sink to the bottom and then lift your rod tip to copy one getting knocked off the rocks and sent downstream into the current. Sort of like fishing crayfish patterns for smallies.

Wouldn't this be a hoot...Tony lands a 20+ Brownie on the "pede-hatch"!

We will need photographic evidence of course and a play-by-play...

Spence

Oh my! Sounds like trips to the stream are quite the adventure for you having to deal with all of the creepy-crawlies. Your stories remind me of Indiana Jones stuff. Uck.

My hang up is ticks. Mostly deer ticks, but I hate them all equally. They creep me out. I think it's because of the Lymes Disease the deer ticks carry. For the last two years or so the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning has had an unusual abundance of them for some reason. Just a hot spot for them I guess. I haven't had a trip over there without picking ticks off of me and my clothing. Mostly dog ticks, but still, they're creepy. I often wonder if the lack of deer in the area compared to what it use to be that may be contributing to so many ticks in the grass looking for a host instead of being on the deer.

Maybe I can train some centipedes to eat them instead of spiders. Release them like a pack of hunting dogs when I arrive to the river, whistle them back in when I'm leaving.

Perhaps not smarter, but surely wiser.

I like the deer hair idea, Tony - maybe I'll tie some up like that. The ones I had originally in mind would be of the curly variety (here are a few pics: http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=44088).

I saw many of these in PA last week, but yesterday the stream I was on in Central NY was just completely loaded with them. Of course, I don't have my tying materials with me...

I'm not sure if they're the same little buggers, but our apartment in NC was completely overrun by similar critters back when my wife and I were first married. That was pretty disgusting.

-Shawn

Shawn,

I visited the link for the flies you mentioned...That third one I could see coming in handy a week or so prior to and during the Hex activity...

Spence

I've never fished the hex hatch, so I can't comment on that, Spence, but I think the style could be used for several types of flies. The one you mention is intended to be a caddis pattern and has done well for me in the past.

-Shawn

most millipedes I've met put out an unpleasant odor/fluid when bothered. wouldn't this be a deterrent to a fish scooping one up for a snack?

Could be. Trout won't eat the tent worm in our area because of a supposedly bad taste (I never tried one). There were billions of them, some streams were blanketed with them. The fish would nose them, but wouldn't take them. Now, the moth was another story. ;-)

Thanks, Konchu - that was the very reason I was asking the question, because I suspected some toxicity or at least bad taste in the millipedes. Anyone know more about this? I suppose the toxicity would be, and Konchu suggested, species-specific, but also that trout may develop a general distaste for them based on specific bad experiences with toxic ones. I've heard the same is true of water striders and water boatmen, and that trout won't go near them as a result.

-Shawn

I've also heard the same for water striders. As for boatman, I have a friend that goes to the Bow River drainage and does quite well on a water boatman pattern the guide gave him. Maybe the trout think it's something else, but he says he strips it in in short bursts like a boatman.