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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.

Dorsal view of a Setvena wahkeena (Perlodidae) (Wahkeena Springfly) Stonefly Nymph from Mystery Creek #199 in Washington
As far as I can tell, this species has only previously been reported from one site in Oregon along the Columbia gorge. However, the key characteristics are fairly unmistakable in all except for one minor detail:
— 4 small yellow spots on frons visible in photos
— Narrow occipital spinule row curves forward (but doesn’t quite meet on stem of ecdysial suture, as it's supposed to in this species)
— Short spinules on anterior margin of front legs
— Short rposterior row of blunt spinules on abdominal tergae, rather than elongated spinules dorsally
I caught several of these mature nymphs in the fishless, tiny headwaters of a creek high in the Wenatchee Mountains.
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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Jmd123 has attached these 4 pictures. The message is below.
Sunset over the Pond...
Only brookie of the evening, but beautiful (11")
Couldn't throw these back...YUMMMMY!!
The fly that got the job done (again)!
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Sep 23, 2013September 23rd, 2013, 6:57 pm EDT
Well folks, the end is near...on midnight of September 30th, four of my five favorite local trout fishing spots will be closed for the next seven months, including this one. So, hitting them hard while I still can, and fish are still biting! Though, the evening yielded only one trout, but a nice one! In addition to the two keeper perch (or are they smallmouth bass?? ;oD), I caught an annoying amount of little guys too small to eat...wondering if I should bring my minnow bucket along, and either throw the little ones into the stream below the dam (have fun competing with the brookies in that small cold stream environment guys!) or transplant them to Clark's Marsh, where they can compete with the bass and pumpkinseed...either way I want them outta there, too much competition for these beautiful brookies! The two I brought home (currently being frozen stiff) both had egg sacs in their bellies, so I took a couple of fertile females out of the population. The 12-incher put quite a bend in my rod, and I wasn't entirely disappointed to see it was that big of a perch...

WARNING to Spence: don't show these to your better half, or she might want to start fishing with me instead... ;oD

All fish except one perch took the mottled brown/grizzly #10 Woolly Bugger with black bead-chain eyes. This very same fly pattern worked well during my parents' visit back in May, accounting for nine keeper perch, a pile of little ones, and two nice (11-12") brookies (pics posted on here back then). This pattern has always done well here early in the season, and now perhaps later as well. Surface feeding was sparse and scattered, no response to either a #10 modified Joe's Hopper or a #12 White Wulff...no bugs visible except for a few sparse midges and they weren't bringing anything up but dinkers.

Hey, no one else is posting photos on here lately besides Spence and Jason (and a few odd bugs by Kurt), so somebody has to show that they're having some fishing success...

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
Entoman
Entoman's profile picture
Northern CA & ID

Posts: 2604
Entoman on Sep 23, 2013September 23rd, 2013, 7:50 pm EDT
Wooly Bugger? Looks like a Palmer KBF to me...:)
"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
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Sep 23, 2013September 23rd, 2013, 8:22 pm EDT
Call it what you will, Kurt...it WORKS!

;oD

Jonathon

P.S. Couple of nice "smallies", eh?
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
Entoman
Entoman's profile picture
Northern CA & ID

Posts: 2604
Entoman on Sep 23, 2013September 23rd, 2013, 9:25 pm EDT
Yes, their diet must be so rich in perch that they're starting to look like 'em.:)
"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
Crepuscular
Crepuscular's profile picture
Boiling Springs, PA

Posts: 920
Crepuscular on Sep 24, 2013September 24th, 2013, 4:10 am EDT
Hey, no one else is posting photos on here lately besides Spence and Jason (and a few odd bugs by Kurt), so somebody has to show that they're having some fishing success...



Oldredbarn
Oldredbarn's profile picture
Novi, MI

Posts: 2600
Oldredbarn on Sep 24, 2013September 24th, 2013, 5:09 am EDT
But damn it Eric! Are you having any fun?! ;)

Don't let this alligator loose in the "redacted pond"!!! She'll clean it out. :) You can almost smell the perch and parr-marked brook trout on her breath.

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Sep 24, 2013September 24th, 2013, 6:28 am EDT
Thanks Eric, glad to see someone else's fish for a change!

Spence, if one like that showed up in the Pond, I'm afraid I would suspend my catch-and-release ethic on that fish too...I'm told this pond used to grow 18-inch brookies, so anything that gets in the way of that happening again...goes in the freezer!

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

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