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.

I spent more than an hour casting to several rising trout in this pool and caught only two. Its clear water and tricky currents harbor dozens of free-rising, usually very hard-to-catch fish.

From Enfield Creek in New York

Stream photos

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Zapada cinctipes (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph Zapada cinctipes (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph

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.

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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.

Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Pre-winter Steelhead Highlights

Report at a Glance

General Region	The Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Specific Location	the yoop
Dates Fished	2012
Time of Day	Morning to afternoon
Fish Caught	Steelhead
Conditions & Hatches	Light wind but very cold, around 30 degrees. Water temp was around 34 degrees or colder.

Details and Discussion

Pryal74

Escanaba, MI

Posts: 168

Pryal74 on Dec 23, 2012December 23rd, 2012, 9:35 am EST

Here is a highlight video of a day fishing for Lake Superior run Steelhead. I was lucky enough to land all large Steelhead on this tributary. Unlike Lake Michigan Steelhead, Superior run steelies do not reach large sizes.

-James Pryal
Into The Wild Fly Fishing

Wbranch

York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635

Wbranch on Dec 23, 2012December 23rd, 2012, 10:11 am EST

Hello Jim,

Beautiful fish! I'm jealous, not so much by the size or numbers of fish, but by the totally un-crowded conditions you seem to encounter in your videos. Don't people in Michigan like to steelhead fish? Where I fish in, and around, the various Lake Erie creeks it doesn't matter how cold it is it would be an extremely rare day not to find good numbers of guys fishing.

I see you are very close to the lake and the fish, for the most part, are bright chromers. Are they Manistee strain fish? The PA fish are getting pretty colored up now but there are still some bright fish.

Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.

GldstrmSam

Fairbanks, Alaska

Posts: 212

GldstrmSam on Dec 23, 2012December 23rd, 2012, 12:54 pm EST

Looks fun!

I always enjoy your videos. They are very well done.

Did you take those recently? If so I would guess that we were probably 70-80 degrees colder up here than when you took those. Brr. It's even to cold to go ice fishing, or to at least enjoy ice fishing.:)
Okay, I guess I should not complain. That is the price I pay for living in Alaska, and I would not trade it for much. :) :)

Sam

There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm. ~Patrick F. McManus

Pryal74

Escanaba, MI

Posts: 168

Pryal74 on Dec 25, 2012December 25th, 2012, 1:16 pm EST

@ Wbranch... there are always people steelhead fishing up here... and I only fish in the U.P. These are all natural reproduction strains as far as I know in this video.

@ Sam... Yeah this video is from a month ago or so. It was about 25-30 degrees out with a slight wind chill and some awfully cold water. I can imagine you don't get a great deal of time to fly fish compared to the rest of the world. Oh and thank you. I do all the video work, except some filming.

-James Pryal
Into The Wild Fly Fishing