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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

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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Wbranch
Wbranch's profile picture
York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 2:57 am EST
I have a new Facebook friend and he sent me this picture. It looks like a cross between a Rocky Mountain whitefish and a brown trout. It is not photoshopped.

http://www.balkan-trout.com/slike/studied_neretva_1.jpg
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 6:41 am EST
Matt,
Pretty cool fish. The photo got me curious so I googled Neretva trout. Apparently quite a bit of flyfishing for it in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Found some more pictures from the University of Toronto http://individual.utoronto.ca/manuesteve/UTsoftmouth.html as well as some spawning footage on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7MPHM7hzCs. Also found a paper on the Neretva River and it's fish here http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1373e/i1373e03.pdf.
Interesting trout and river, thanks for posting it.
Mark
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
RMlytle
RMlytle's profile picture
Connecticut

Posts: 40
RMlytle on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 12:59 pm EST
Wow! Just added that to my fish wish list.
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 3:11 pm EST
Guys, check out James Prosek's Trout of the World. He covers just about every species and subspecies of salmonids worldwide, and I remember he's got a pretty good discussion of Balkan species in there, which are quite diverse.

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

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 5:03 pm EST
Jonathan,
Guys, check out James Prosek's Trout of the World.

Another good book is Robert Behnke's "Trout and Salmon of North America" illustrated by Joseph Tomelleri. While it only covers North America I don't think Behnke missed much. Good descriptions as well as the biology and ecology of trout.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 6:37 pm EST
Mark, I am familiar with that one too. Joseph Tomelleri is also an amazing fish artist (I have his Fishes of the Central United States, tour de force on the sunfish!), and the contrast in the two styles is interesting - Prosek uses watercolors while Tomelleri uses colored pencils, yet both create drawings/paintings of fishes that I have actually seen and caught on numerous occasions. So, I can guess that the species I don't know are represented accurately!

Prosek has also done his homework and corresponded with Behnke and other salmonid experts...though not to the degree that Behnke and his colleagues have! But he does back up his "coffee-table trout books" with some interesting knowledge.

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

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on Nov 12, 2014November 12th, 2014, 6:58 pm EST
Brown trout evolved in eastern Eurasia, so there's diversity there. Our stocks of browns are derived from just two varieties. Likely the "odd" mouth of obtusirostris (and lenok) are convergent with whitefish (adaptations to environmental circumstances and not directly related). Here's the trunk page from a site Mark provided, showing salmonid diversity:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/manuesteve/UTphylogeny.html

Click on S. akairos! Pretty cool. (I almost ended up in Morocco, instead of the Philippines.)

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