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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
Blue-winged Olives
Baetis

Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.

Case view of a Pycnopsyche guttifera (Limnephilidae) (Great Autumn Brown Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
It's only barely visible in one of my pictures, but I confirmed under the microscope that this one has a prosternal horn and the antennae are mid-way between the eyes and front of the head capsule.

I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.

The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.

Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
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.
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Lateral view of a Cicadidae (Cicada) True Bug Adult from the Bois Brule River in Wisconsin
I found this cicada and several like it in the grass near my car as I put my waders on. Some of them were singing in the trees above the river, too, but I did not see any fall into the water.
Falsifly
Falsifly's profile picture
Hayward, WI.

Posts: 660
Falsifly on May 29, 2013May 29th, 2013, 11:31 am EDT
Falsifly
When asked what I just caught that monster on I showed him. He put on his magnifiers and said, "I can't believe they can see that."
Sayfu
Posts: 560
Sayfu on May 29, 2013May 29th, 2013, 3:05 pm EDT

Gather some up, pull a wing off, and get a chum-line going. Start a hatch, then splat down that big ugly. That's if fishin has been tough lately, and I'm getting close to that point.
Martinlf
Martinlf's profile picture
Moderator
Palmyra PA

Posts: 3047
Martinlf on May 29, 2013May 29th, 2013, 4:51 pm EDT
Clever way to sneak a haiku in (Scroll down under the video to see the comment by Gilles Arbour-2 days ago),
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"

--Fred Chappell
Falsifly
Falsifly's profile picture
Hayward, WI.

Posts: 660
Falsifly on May 29, 2013May 29th, 2013, 7:44 pm EDT
Clever way to sneak a haiku in

If you are going to quote somebody you might as well quote the best.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D
Falsifly
When asked what I just caught that monster on I showed him. He put on his magnifiers and said, "I can't believe they can see that."

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