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3. Can't Tell Ya'

I'd love to tell what I saw while fishing Sunday, but I can't. No...don't even ask me. If I tell you, you'll start calling me bad names like "Poopy Head."
I said, no, now don't even ask me.
Bruce

I'm sorry I called you Poopy Head. I was in a baaaaad space.

No...you didn't see Trico's. It was a dream from too little sleep and too much fishing...or...vice versa.

Bruce-



Was it animal, vegetable, or mineral?

Is this like M C Hammer's rip-off of "Superfreak" by Rick James?

"Can't touch this..."

Jonathon

bigfoot?

Well, here goes. I thought I had a real news flash on Sunday. As I approached my favorite spot I stood for awhile and looked around for bugs. (See, Paul, I look arouond just like you). I thought for sure I was seeing a few tricos on the water. I caught one and looked at it. It had 3 short tails, an olive abodomen and a black thorax just like a female trico spinner. That's a Trico I assured myself. My buddy tells me what I saw was a Caenis. I've always enjoyed fishing the tricos because they hatch in the daylight and they're a good, sporting challenge, but I think he's turned me into some kind trico zealot. He says they can't be tricos this late in November. I guess not. I googled images for Caenis and it looks like the fly I caught. But, alas, ( I Like the word alas), I looked in Fauceglia's book and it also looks like the female trico spinner. Gees, every bug I see now is a trico.

To make a long story longer, although not nearly as long as one of Spence's soliloquies, I looked for my trico box and remembered I stashed it away for the winter. I can admit I'm wrong, so I say, I'm wrong. Well, maybe. You guys all hang in there and maybe we can all meet on the water soon.

Bruce (Poopy Head)

Sorry, Paul, I just couldn't let it die. As Woody Allen once said, "Dying is one of the few things you can do as easily as laying down."

Bruce,

Perhaps the easiest way to distinguish the winged lifestages of Caenis from Tricorythodes is the color of the abdomen. If the abdomen is whitish, it's a Caenis. If the abdomen is blackish, it's Tricorythodes.

I don't know how many Caenis species there are, but the one's I've seen in NY were quite different looking than Trico's. They have white abdomens (not clear as in Trico males) and wings, looking very white on the wing. The one's I've seen had a reddish brownish thorax. They are also REALLY tiny -smaller than Trico's. They are more of a warmwater bug and were a mid to late summer hatch on slow stretches of lower reaches of streams. They were also thick on the Finger Lakes themselves.

Here's (an ungodly long) link to a pic:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bugguide.net/images/raw/IZALSZ1LYL6LJLPLZZYZERYZYLOZKRNLMRQH4RKHXZBLSZTLQZLH5ROZKRELYL3Z6RZHKRFZSRYZIR.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bugguide.net/node/view/329216/bgimage&usg=__x0PDIpt_qB-pb3tcGw_bZ-fMx0g=&h=491&w=550&sz=87&hl=en&start=82&zoom=0&tbnid=sA53Nz1dsK9L2M:&tbnh=119&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCaenis%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel%3Ds%26biw%3D1289%26bih%3D690%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C2052&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=333&ei=ILXiTK-mMoH68AaG0sGfDw&oei=urDiTPmbOYP7lwerkLWYDQ&esq=5&page=4&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:24,s:82&tx=75&ty=48&biw=1289&bih=690

Sounds to me like you are describing a Trico.

Guys, the abdomen was a pale olive.

Hi Paul. It didn't look at all like that link you posted.
Bruce

Sounds to me like you are describing a Trico.

So are you going to change this thread name to "Fishable Tricos in Nov?"

Curious now. What were your water temps??

I get the joke, but someone here has gone on and on about some bugs flying around in the air and never mentioned if any of them ever made it to the water or if there were any fish actually caught! :)

You know from a distance us fly fishing types must look a bit odd...Those observing us can't see these tiny bugs we are staring at and it just looks like we are looking off in to space...squinting...I have had folks in canoes go by and give me weird looks and then look over at where I have been staring and just float by wondering what the hell was going on back there..."I didn't see anything...Did you?"

Spence

You get even weirder looks when you're waving your arms around in the air trying to catch a dun coming off the water.

-Shawn

How about observing the surface drift bent over with your nose to the surface for a prolonged period of time.

Or watching emerging duns, or imagoes high up, with binocs. Birders ask, "What is it??" You answer, "Paraleptphlebia adoptiva." Which has them paging madly through their Sibley's.

Hi Spence. I was just teasing you a bit. Yes, a few bugs were on the water, but not enough that the fish cared. I'm talking maybe 10 or so in the 15 minutes I watched. Not one was eaten by a trout. Like I said, I put my tricos away for the year. I always carry a specimen jar with me except on Sunday. I forgot it. I really feel bad about that because we could have solved the mystery.
Gutcutter says they couldn't be tricos this late.

Bruce

Bruce, I hate to contradict Tony, ;> but I believe he is mistaken. Although I've never seen . . . uh oh, I just remembered . . . I have seen Tricos this late. Once, on the Tulpehocken, years ago. It completely surprised me. There weren't many of them, and fish certainly took no notice, but Tricos they were. Let's get Gonzo to weigh in on this one, but I'll bet the bug you saw was a Trike.

hey - now wait a minute -
i don't think i said that they couldn't be tricos, i said that i really doubt that they were tricos. but i also think that i said that he had as good of a chance of seeing sasquatch as tricos past mid november.
did you see any really large foot prints?
i think that i'm starting to believe, too.
huh, tricos (non fishable?) in november.
what time of day? any idea of the water temp? what are you doing this weekend??? i think we need some photographic evidence...
bruce- my friend - i'm really sorry i infected you with this whole dryfly thing and really, really sorry about helping you figure out tricos and how long and dependable the hatch is. and how crazy they can make you. and how to stop people from finding out where we fish and how much fun you can have with tiny flies and 7x tippett and 14 inch wild fish...

Bruce,

I will confess to staring mostly out the window during vacation Bible school as a very young lad...Not really paying attention 100% of the time...Barely 10% of the time if I'm being honest, but I'm really afraid I missed this one...Is that an eleventh commandment or something? "Thou shall not take specimens from creek on the Sabbath!"

We better pass that on to the "Bug Boys" because I bet they have some atoning to do...;)

Spence

I guess I should have said: "On Sunday, I forgot to take my specimen tube with me and I didn't feel like taking my camera." The time of day I saw these bugs was around noon and it was 63 degrees (air temp). I didn't take the water temp. I will have my camera with me on Friday and my specimen tube being that it's a weekday. I have an Olympus SW1050 and I have the hardest time using the macro mode. I guess I don't use it enough. My previous camera was a Nikon and it was much easier to use. I will be on watch this weekend for trico, caenis and bigfoot or whatever--UFOs.
Bruce

PS. This is all Tony's fault because he wasn't fishinig with me.

Bruce, I'm using the Oly SW1030. Mine has a SuperMacro mode that will focus down to near 2inches or so. It has a little LED light that comes on in this mode. Pretty nifty. Tough part is seeing past reflections on the screen to see if you are in focus -getting the green box. Practice just a bit to see how close you can get. It's pretty darn close. It's been a great fishing camera for me.

Oh yeah, not sure if you read the fine print, but the waterproof seals are supposed to be changed annually(!). I am finally going to send it off this winter to be done. Hope it isn't too pricey a job, and it comes back in good shape. Wish me luck.