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3. GD Shuck

Jason's photo of a GD shuck suggests that at hatch time the backs of the nymphs may be a greyish or grey olive color. Possibly useful information, if this is an accurate surmise.

Louis, profanities are prohibited on this site. Couldn't you just write shuck?
Bruce, Goose, Lastchance, Feathers5, etc.

I have always been in a quandary when it comes to the color of my trailing shuck. The one shuck that I have visibly seen a lot of are Chironomid empty shucks on the lake's water surface. They appear clear, and much like cellophane. When I have brought up that question to one of the "expert" speakers, they seem to be not very positive themselves, and appear as if that question was never asked. I often use an "amber" Zelon shuck, and don't worry about it.

Sorry, Bruce, I know I should restrain myself. But that Gosh Darn Green Drake hatch is so frustrating, it's hard not to use a little blue language at times. By the way, your new favorite stream is fishing pretty good with the nymphs right now.

I'm rearing a lot of mayflies right now, and the shuck almost always appears to be a grey or amber color. Most of the Ephemeridae I've seen are amber.

Here is a green drake shuck I collected on the upper Delaware on 6/7/08. I remember it being greyer than the pic shows. I also remember a greenish hue on the top side of the abdomen near the thorax. Doesn't show up very well in the photo, though.



There were quite a few of these floating along the south bank. Lots of duns flopping around on the water trying to dry their wings, and all the fish would touch were sulphurs.

Well, there you go! A picture is worth a thousand words.

Eric (Crepuscular) sent me a text message that claimed that sulphurs taste better to the trout and Ephemera taste like the mud they live in...Not sure if he speaks from experience or is just being silly. He knows a great deal about mud since he hangs around that slippery damn muddy Letort...I'm still trying to free my wading boots and waders of the stuff! ;)

Spence

I related a story from last Brown Drake time (2012) where I became fixated on the Brown Drakes...It was an evening float where I caught a 22", and a 20" Browns, and a 17" Bow...I had two rods strung up...My Winston sat there with a sulpher spinner in the hook keeper and it never dawned on me that the fish I missed were eating invaria spinners until I turned the mag-lite on the surface to find Brown Drakes and way more sulpher spinners...

Never under estimate the power of sulpher spinners...There is a stretch of the Holy Water known to friends as "Spencer's Hole of Shame"...It became such on a May evening in 1991 where the whole river seemed to be feeding and there were stoneflies everywhere by the trillions...I thought Stones and tossed every damn one I had in my box and never got a look...I was being eaten alive by every biting bug on the river and it was pitch black out...I waded downstream to my fishing buddy to see him landing a 16-18" Brown..."Spence...Did you catch the sulpher spinner fall? I told you to watch for the spinners!"

Our PED's and the western PMD's are cousins and the same applies out there unless there is a Baetis about...I figured that out in 2004 on the Gallatin before I almost created another "Hole of Shame"...

There just may be something to Erics theory that sulphers are tastier...Do you think I'd mess with my vegetarian karma too much if I ate a sulpher and a BD later this week when I'm back in Grayling? I have been in invaria hatches so thick I've had a couple in my mouth, but I spit them out. :)

Who me? How else do you explain it?



Man, you are gonna have those all over the country ;)

Oh yeah! There was the missed fish on the Letort. Damn! And I was doing so good. :)

Ah, you're doing better than good.