1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Specimen Discussion
›
3. Chimarra

If I'm seeing things correctly, this appears to be Chimarra.

Are imitations of this larva effective? Charlie Meck claims they are, and I wonder if the fish actually see them and eat them, or are primarily responding to his little orange worm as an attractor. Any ideas?

I've never tried. When I've found them, it's usually just two or three larvae in a sample with hundreds of Ephemerella and Baetid mayflies and Hydropsychid caddisflies and other more common critters. It's safe to say they're not a major food source on the streams I've sampled, but perhaps they're locally abundant elsewhere.

Louis,

On streams where they are abundant (the Brodheads and the Yellow Breeches are two examples of very different streams with good populations) the imitations are good for both of the reasons you mention. Like the bright green Rhyacophila larvae, they combine imitation and attraction. The best populations are usually in larger waters.

Pattern suggestions? Dubbing color?

Pretty simple--a little curved hook, dark yellow to yellowish orange dubbing (rib with fine gold wire, if you like), thread legs or yellow/orange-dyed partridge fibers (optional), brown head.

While the larval pattern can be a useful searching fly, my favorite aspect of Chimarra is fishing the emerging pupae. You need to locate an emergence site where the pupae crawl out in large numbers. Sometimes you can do this by looking for concentrations of the recently hatched adults on the underside of leaves and wood low along the edge of the stream. The coolest thing, however, is that if you stand for any length of time in a good site during the emergence time, the freshly hatched adults will soon be all over your waders above the waterline. Then you simply need to tie on a little black pupa and crawl it along the bottom!

In response to the original comment: Not that the correct genus of Philopotamid matters when tying/using flies, but you would be able to get an easy ID if you could see a top-view of the head capsule. Chimarra sp. has an obvious emargination at the apex of the frontoclypeus. Dolophilodes and Wormaldia can be identified by the shapes of their frontoclypeal sutures. In the future, take closeups looking down on the head for ID purposes.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

I would say they are a crucial early season protein source in the catskills. I would even bet that they make up a large percentage of the early season invertabrate flow as a trout food. My autopsies have shown this (both pupal and adult stage) and I seem to dupe quite a few early season fish in slow hatch periods with smallish 18/20 black/charcoal patterns.
I can't speak to the effectiveness of pupal or emerging patterns,'cuz Dave don't do that kinda fishing.

When there are no rises when Chimarra are active one can find fish taking small peacock and starling wet flies either dead drifted or on the swing.

I have them on my little home stream in va. Red bud run. I found a 16,18 curved hook,or a reversed bend hook. Ornge or sulphur dubing,7x mono for rib,brown or ginger hackle with a little brown biot pulled over for wing case.works great.

The pupae are dark, almost black.

ditto to Louis' remark about peacock bodied soft hackle flies.... less than two minutes to tie and very effective...

October caddis, for one, but they are big fellows.

How are you collecting them?

Mack...I'm surprised! "was about a size 16-ish'...Now that's "swinging" with science. :) You know its not a goal until it crosses the line, not almost crosses the line...'ish"...Hmmmm.

Yesterday's Gold Medal game in women's hockey was an incredible game. The US girls out played the Canadians all but the last three crucial minutes. One of the better played games I've seen in a long time. The US fore-checked wonderfully and worked the boards like they were playing for the Stanley Cup. Heartbreaking. The Canadians first goal was a mis-cued shot that went off in an odd direction and hit one of our forwards and went in.

Today its the mens turn...

Leave it up to Spence to bring this thread around to hockey...;oD

Jonathon

Hey, RU gonna answer my question or gloat about Hockey! :)

That was a quick edit!
In the drift near the surface or knocked from rocks?

Yes, I did. Interesting man. I hope you are able to help his family.

Please forgive my confusion, but isn't this thread titled Specimen Discussion > Chimarra :-)