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3. PA Tricos?

Caddisman, JW, or any other PA anglers--have you seen any Tricos yet? I believe they're coming off on the Little Lehigh. I'll check Rod's website to be sure. Time to pull out the itsie bitsies and dust them off.

Hi Newt
No I haven't but my hands are getting itchy :) Cindi and I will be at Penns this weekend at that A frame, that I was telling you about,Ill be fishing in the mornings I'll keep an eye open.

Louis I just got a great idea--This hole group on here could rent this A frame together. I know Dick rents this out to the right people, its only half a mile from Penns. (Just a Thought)

Anyone care to fill me in on the 'Newt' joke?

Have not seen any trikes yet but I had the #22-26 hooks in the vice getting my stocks replenished. I forgot how frustrating it is to split tails on something that stinking small.

JW

JW, what splitting method do you use? I generally don't have too much trouble splitting them with the Thread-spread Triple Tail method (#24 on p. 84 of the Benchside Reference). In the book it sounds more complicated than it is.

Jason, the reference to Newt comes from my uncle's favorite big fish expression, "Hold her Newt, she's headed for the pea patch." Caddisman, I like the idea--especially for olive season or sulphurs. Let's keep it in mind.

Jason,
I use the split thread technique. I think the tough part came from switching from tying #4-2/0 bass streamers to the ultra tiny trikes. It took four or five for me to get the proportions and techniques scaled back down, but then that is what they make razor blades for.

Caddisman,
Have done a very similar thing, including my first and only trip to Yellowstone, with guys from the "other board" and it always worked out well.

JW

Louis

No Tricos from what I saw,Olives and Slate Drakes.

jaD

on penns and honey creek i am seeing bwo's
on penns i have been seeing light cahill? maybe is the slate drake, cause the fish weren't taking the light cahill i was pitching.
but the bwo produced nicely





edit because i named the wrong creek

Slate drakes (Isonychia) are a big (#12 or bigger this early) and dark bug very tough to miss. Cahills are about as opposite in color as you can get from an Iso.
If they are taking BWO I would guess the Cornutta is a good candidate for the specific bug.
Just my humble $.02
JW

Louis,
At the PFFMA Heritage Day back on 6/16, I heard reports of tricos hatching. I know that they're often confused for paraleps spinners at that time of year, but the fellow I talked to seemed exceptionally bug-conscious. He also had pictures of some slob rainbows taken during the spinner fall. I'm pretty sure that the rainbows were Beaver brutes, so I assumed he was fishing around Spruce at the time.

Gonzo,
Don't forget about Yellow as a possible venue for those big bows.


I hope to do a little scouting the next day or so and see if the "little devils" are about.
JW

You're right, John; I suppose it could have been most any of the "Beaverized" streams. If an out-of-stater paid attention to all of the trumped-up publicity (magazine covers, catalog photos, television fly-fishing competitions, etc.) it would be hard to escape the erroneous conclusion that PA is a producer of huge rainbows. That's kind of ironic since your home stream and the Delaware are among the very few streams where that is remotely true. I'm not sure why I bridle at that mistaken impression, but I do.

(Quote) Louis,
At the PFFMA Heritage Day back on 6/16, I heard reports of tricos hatching. I know that they're often confused for paraleps spinners at that time of year, but the fellow I talked to seemed exceptionally bug-conscious. He also had pictures of some slob rainbows taken during the spinner fall. I'm pretty sure that the rainbows were Beaver brutes, so I assumed he was fishing

Lloyd I have been using (small black), and doing very well on 20 and smaller black spinner at Barrie and below. Their has been a small very dark BWO comming for some time ( around a month) along with the Paralops---

JaD

Hi John,

Thanks for the update. In addition to the reports of early trico hatches, there are several other small darkish mayflies that can provide morning action at this time of year. The paraleps/blue quills tend to be late morning emergers and the male spinners (unlike the early season blue quills) often have the "Jenny spinner" configuration--whitish abdomens with dark tips. Little olive morning duns (the second, smaller cohort of Drunella lata) and little black quills (Serratella deficiens) can also be important. And, of course, baetids can show up most anytime. Have you noticed if the dark BWOs you mentioned have two tails or three?

No I did not count tails, I get my samples from the Cob Webs off the bridge at Barrie. I'll be their this Thursday I'll check. I never thought about the Black Quill ,have only run in to them on Young-Womens Creek and they were much larger.So what I saw might not have been BWO.
I noted to my friend that I had never seen any that dark--HuH

Ill get back to you on this.

JAD

Thanks, John, I'll await your report. I also think I may have confused you with my reference to "little black quills." Black quill is the common name for Leptophlebia cupida, a larger unrelated spring emerger. Little black quill is my name for Serratella deficiens. I use the name because it seems more descriptive of the little (#20) black-winged, black-bodied duns than the other common name for Serratella species, the little dark Hendricksons. (Jason mentions another appropriate name that is apparently used in his old Midwestern stomping grounds, Darth Vader.) The deficiens duns have light rings around their abdomen, giving them a quill-bodied look. The legs and tails of the duns are very pale, and the dark little nymphs have the habit of flipping their abdomens skyward in a scorpionlike posture. This is not a well-known hatch, but it is very widespread and can be important on many streams.

the bwo's i have collected recently have 3 tails,
if you would like me to post a picture i can try, allthough the fluid i used to preserve these bugs is garbage and they slightly fade in color.
so stay away from "bug balmer"

Were the three-tailed "BWOs" emerging in the morning? If so, they are probably Drunella. The nymphs are pretty distinctive; they have the typical crawler shape with noticeably fat and flattened front-leg femurs.

Haven't heard of S. deficiens being called by a Star Wars name before. However, a new genus and species of mayfly was recently described from Borneo by colleagues:

Darthus vadorus

I am not making this up.