Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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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.
— 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.
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JOHNW on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 10:40 am EDT
OK so here is a specimen I collected about 5yrs ago on the Falling Spring. We usually see a few scattered duns and spinners mixed with sulphurs (invarias I think). That year these things hatched en masse.
Best ID I've gotten was a Yellow Drake so I'll turn it over to you all.
Best ID I've gotten was a Yellow Drake so I'll turn it over to you all.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 10:59 am EDT
John, that is indeed a female yellow drake (Ephemera varia)--a beautiful mayfly.
JOHNW on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 11:46 am EDT
OK why isn't the image coming up?
Gonzo the thing that really confused me on this was the timing of the emergence. Most of the Chambersburg streams see yellow drakes in mid June; on FSB it is mid May.
Gonzo the thing that really confused me on this was the timing of the emergence. Most of the Chambersburg streams see yellow drakes in mid June; on FSB it is mid May.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 11:50 am EDT
Yeah, that is a little strange, but I have heard of YDs emerging on a much earlier schedule on some other streams. I don't think they were in PA, though. I'll try to track one of those examples down for you, John.
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 12:47 pm EDT
John, Knopp's Mayflies has an emergence chart for Connecticut that shows the YDs emerging mostly through May. This is in contrast to most of the other Eastern/Midwestern charts that reflect the more typical June/July period. I don't know what causes these differences, but they don't seem to reflect the usual north/south variations, and even elevation changes would not explain the difference in timing you see from one local stream to another. Perhaps Konchu has some insight into this.
Taxon on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 12:57 pm EDT
OK why isn't the image coming up?
John-
You need to change IMG and /IMG to
img and /img.
Wiflyfisher on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 1:06 pm EDT
Actually, the way Jason has it setup you can either link to an image or embed an image from another page inside your message by referencing it's URL.
Click here for the forum codes
Click here for the forum codes
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
JOHNW on Jul 27, 2007July 27th, 2007, 12:42 pm EDT
Thats better! Thanks for the help.
JW
JW
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
Martinlf on Jul 28, 2007July 28th, 2007, 9:17 am EDT
Great photo; I can only hope that the blitz of these that came five years back happens sometime when I'm on the stream. And that I have flies for it.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
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I agree with the nymph and emergence coments above
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