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.

Stream photos

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Female Sweltsa borealis (Boreal Sallfly) Stonefly Adult Female Sweltsa borealis (Boreal Sallfly) Stonefly Adult

Lateral view of a Female Sweltsa borealis (Chloroperlidae) (Boreal Sallfly) Stonefly Adult from Harris Creek in Washington

I was not fishing, but happened to be at an unrelated social event on a hill above this tiny creek (which I never even saw) when this stonefly flew by me. I assume it came from there. Some key characteristics are tricky to follow, but process of elimination ultimately led me to Sweltsa borealis. It is reassuringly similar to this specimen posted by Bob Newell years ago. It is also so strikingly similar to this nymph from the same river system that I'm comfortable identifying that nymph from this adult. I was especially pleased with the closeup photo of four mites parasitizing this one.

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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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Is it wrong that I can't wait for the fall stockies to return

Ditch

Fuquay-Varina NC

Posts: 36

Ditch on Sep 14, 2010September 14th, 2010, 3:48 am EDT

it has been a long Hot summer in Va and less than a month till they start stocking

There are no bad fishing days.

SlateDrake9
Potter County, PA

Posts: 144

SlateDrake9 on Sep 14, 2010September 14th, 2010, 5:38 am EDT

Not at all. In my neck of the woods the summer heat decimated the trout populations in many streams. A lot of our streams saw the 80's. The trout that did survive haven't repopulated the stream from the thermal refuge areas yet either, and water temps have been decent in a lot of the smaller streams for a few weeks now, but still very, very low. Not the worse I've seen, but may be there in a few weeks if we don't get A LOT of rain over several days.

We need some hurricanes and heavy tropical storms to move into Pennsylvania. I'm praying this isn't going to be one of those years where we don't get any, like it was in '06 or '07 when the streams were almost entirely dried up through most of November.

Fishing with bait is like swearing in church.
-- Slate Drake