Header image
Enter a name
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.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Roguerat
Roguerat's profile picture
Posts: 456
Roguerat on Aug 16, 2015August 16th, 2015, 6:28 am EDT
I'm not sure where this should be posted, kind of an esoteric topic.

Does anybody have real-world experience with sun-screen or bug-spray damaging their fly-lines? I've heard quite a few anecdotal references to this happening but never from actual experience. And are there sun-screen or bug-sprays on the market that DON'T attack fly-lines? I use some pretty high DEET content bug-sprays- think of repelling black-flies or mosquitoes in Michigan's UP- and
I get concerned about line-coating effects.

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe
Catskilljon
Upstate NY

Posts: 160
Catskilljon on Aug 16, 2015August 16th, 2015, 7:12 am EDT
I think that maybe in the 80's that could have been a problem, as I have heard the same thing. Today though, with the awareness of chemicals we ingest and put on our skin along with the modern fly line coatings I have never witnessed or damaged anything spraying myself with bug repellant.

That stuff washes off with water anyway and if there is one thing that gets wet while your fishing its your fly line!

Spray away my friend, those blackflies are the devil! CJ
Roguerat
Roguerat's profile picture
Posts: 456
Roguerat on Aug 16, 2015August 16th, 2015, 8:10 am EDT
Agreed on the flies...and last month I lasted all of 10 minutes on the W branch of the Fox in the UP. Mosquitoes attacked the second I left my truck and never let up until I slammed the door shut making a run for it back- but I took a dozen of the little blood-suckers with me and had to kill them while driving. The Deep-woods dope worked to keep them from biting but they still swarmed and went in the ears, up the nose, no kidding- it was bug-hell.

I know better now and will likely invest in one of those over-the-head screen things, I've heard if the mesh is sprayed with dope it's a great first line of defense.

tight lines,

Roguerat
Afishinado
SE PA

Posts: 75
Afishinado on Aug 17, 2015August 17th, 2015, 4:19 am EDT
Deet will damage fly lines as well as many other types of PVC or plastics you touch. If you use a bug repellent with a high Deet content, be sure to wash you hands well and be careful not to get it on your line or equipment.
MiltRPowell
Posts: 106
MiltRPowell on Aug 18, 2015August 18th, 2015, 6:04 pm EDT
Moving is a very funny thing. You find things thought lost long ago. Find things you have no idea you still have it. Then you find fishing shirts your aunt bought you years ago. That the cotton shirt got nasty stains from some sort of bug spray in yup, the 80's... It worked great, but a oiled sort of spray. Stained my clothes, but good.... But I do think they have come along way in bug spray since then. Things ya find when ya move. Just trips down memory lane....
I am thinking that spray, didn't do good for anything else I used also... Was something I bought in the adirondacks on a fishing trip. But worked on the bugs...
Milt...
flyfishingthecreekM.R.P.
RleeP
NW PA - Pennsylvania's Glacial Pothole Wonderland

Posts: 398
RleeP on Aug 19, 2015August 19th, 2015, 12:52 pm EDT
I avoid all DEET products because it can and does dissolve or melt plastics if it comes into contact with them at sufficient concentrations. I wear 2 powerful behind the ear hearing aids and at about $2,000 apiece, I'd rather eat a bushel of blackflies or be exsanguinated by a horde of skeeters than to have to shell out four large for new aids because I got sloppy and let them come in contact with DEET.

Happily, there is (for me at least..) an effective alternative to DEET. A number of repellants have Picaridin (which does not eat plastics like DEET) as their active ingredient. When it was first approved by the FDA as a repellant, Picaridin content was limited to 7% by volume in an OTC formula. At this concentration, Picaridin was just slightly more effective than carrying a citronella candle and a rolled up newspaper. But a few years back, the FDA increased the allowed Picaridin content to 20% and at this level, its pretty good stuff.
Martinlf
Martinlf's profile picture
Moderator
Palmyra PA

Posts: 3047
Martinlf on Aug 27, 2015August 27th, 2015, 12:23 pm EDT
Just saw a very positive review by a flyfisher of the following:

http://allnaturalrepellent.com/prd_byebye.html

"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"

--Fred Chappell

Quick Reply

Related Discussions

Topic
Replies
Last Reply
4
Jun 27, 2008
by GONZO
Troutnut.com is copyright © 2004-2024 (email Jason). privacy policy