Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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This one pretty clearly keys to Kogotus, but it also looks fairly different from specimens I caught in the same creek about a month later in the year. With only one species of the genus known in Washington, I'm not sure about the answer to this ID.
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Lastchance on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 1:34 pm EDT
My BWO emerger is grey/olive. What color ribbing would you suggest, grey thread?
Entoman on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 1:49 pm EDT
What kind off emerger, Bruce? If you are imitating the fresh dun abdomen, I'd go with very pale olive, gray or tan depending on the critter. I mean very pale, if you don't have these colors, white is best. For the nymph abdomen, the same color selection in the more common shades will work, provided they are lighter than the body. I rarely use ribbing darker than the body.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Lastchance on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 2:09 pm EDT
What kind off emerger, Bruce? If you are imitating the fresh dun abdomen, I'd go with very pale olive, gray or tan depending on the critter. I mean very pale, if you don't have these colors, white is best. For the nymph abdomen, the same color selection in the more common shades will work, provided they are lighter than the body. I rarely use ribbing darker than the body.
Good question, Entoman. I'm going to use it as a trailer behind a dry fly. Also, I was using the same pattern on a local stream and fishing it on a dropper. I guess it was in the upper third of the water column. I caught a few fish on it. It's very dark olive/gray with a dun wing case. Am I talking two different stages?
Bruce
Entoman on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 2:22 pm EDT
Well, that's they way I often fish my Ripe Nymph. Sounds like you are imitating the nymph. Baetids will split their wingccases subsurface exposing some thoracic color, but they only eclode (emerge) at the surface as far as I know. Anyway, which is the most dominate color? If olive, I'd go with the gray thread on an olivaceous body.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Lastchance on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 2:54 pm EDT
Well, that's they way I often fish my Ripe Nymph. Sounds like you are imitating the nymph. Baetids will split their wingccases subsurface exposing some thoracic color, but they only eclode (emerge) at the surface as far as I know. Anyway, which is the most dominate color? If olive, I'd go with the gray thread on an olivaceous body.
It's pretty dark so I think I'll use some of each gray and dark olive. I noticed they have a very segmented look to them especially the duns. Am I correct in that recollection?
Lastchance on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 3:15 pm EDT
Entoman, Actually, what I'm tying is the John Barr Wet Emerger. I just realized that I never mentioned it, sorry. It will have a dark olive to gray body and a gray thorax. I used dun hackle fibers for the wing case. They say it can be fished from the bottom to one inch below the surface. They seem to work with the same color abdomen and thorax, too, if you're too lazy to add a different dubbing for the thorax.
Bruce
Bruce
Entoman on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 3:21 pm EDT
Based on what you've described, I'd go with gray - if only because olive thread often looks dark on dubbing blends with a lot of muskrat in it.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Lastchance on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 3:27 pm EDT
Based on what you've described, I'd go with gray - if only because olive thread often looks dark on dubbing blends with a lot of muskrat in it.
It strikes me as so cool that you're on the left coast and I'm on the right yet we can carry on a conversation? I've never been to California. My nephew recently spent a week in San Francisco with the Penn State Glee Club.
Entoman on Apr 1, 2013April 1st, 2013, 3:38 pm EDT
I noticed they have a very segmented...)
In macro photos some can look ringed. But in the hand they mostly look either unicolorous or blotchy (due to varying pigment patterns in the segments). Only rarely do they look "ribbed" like stoneflies and midges usually do. This can be said for most mayflies and a lot of successful imitations have no rib at all. I use ribs on baetid and ephemerellid imitations more to show segmentation than contrast.
It strikes me as so cool that you're on the left coast and I'm on the right yet we can carry on a conversation?
You are so right! This tech allows us anglers to share correspondence like Halford & Gordon or Skues & Leisenring at a level undreamed of what seems like only yesterday.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Sayfu
Posts: 560
Posts: 560
Sayfu on Apr 2, 2013April 2nd, 2013, 8:19 am EDT
Sometimes on a small dry like a BWO I will use the flat, 70 denier UTC thread, and lay a flat abdomen back and forth ending back,and then twist the flat thread, and rib forward. It produces a subtly ribbing effect that I want on the small fly. Then a bumped up thorax.
Feathers5
Posts: 287
Posts: 287
Feathers5 on Apr 2, 2013April 2nd, 2013, 9:19 am EDT
Sometimes on a small dry like a BWO I will use the flat, 70 denier UTC thread, and lay a flat abdomen back and forth ending back,and then twist the flat thread, and rib forward. It produces a subtly ribbing effect that I want on the small fly. Then a bumped up thorax.
That's a good idea, too.
Thanks
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