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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.

Dorsal view of a Zapada cinctipes (Nemouridae) (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
Nymphs of this species were fairly common in late-winter kick net samples from the upper Yakima River. Although I could not find a key to species of Zapada nymphs, a revision of the Nemouridae family by Baumann (1975) includes the following helpful sentence: "2 cervical gills on each side of midline, 1 arising inside and 1 outside of lateral cervical sclerites, usually single and elongate, sometimes constricted but with 3 or 4 branches arising beyond gill base in Zapada cinctipes." This specimen clearly has the branches and is within the range of that species.
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 20 pictures. The message is below.
Beautiful violets on the way to the Pond
Nodding trillium (Trillium cernuum) near the lower Au Sable
Hauling it to the Pond
Before the assault - the Three Amigos
Joe and Todd afloat
Joe's first ever flyrod perch, and a keeper too
Joe's first ever brookie on a fly rod, pretty little thing
Yours truly looking for fertile spots
While mild-mannered around trout, I become a raging bloodthirsty psychopath around this fish species...
As you can see, I had some help from Joe and Todd, so they are accessories to murder...
Todd cleaning 'em
The assault craft taking a rest
Firemaster Joe
Leatherleaf (Chamedaphne calyculata) blooming in a nearby boggy spot
Our constant companions, good old Bufo americanus...Todd said, "I didn't know toads could swim!"
Murder evidence!  We have to eat these...
Potato-flipper-in-chief
Shore dinner
Our morel haul
Your guide and host...and I don't want no funny stuff!!!
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on May 23, 2016May 23rd, 2016, 6:54 pm EDT
My buddies Joe and Todd made it back up for their "2nd annual" visit over the past weekend, and Todd insists on doing as much natural foraging as possible. So, where to take them to catch fishies we can eat without guilt? Why, [REDACTED] Pond, of course, with it's overpopulation of perch competing with the brookies! I in my kayak and the boys in a canoe assaulted the pond with KBF-type patterns and the perch responded with enthusiasm, as well as a few little brookies - Joe officially caught his first trout on a fly rod! I was throwing a standard silver-n-grey #10 KBF and ended up throwing 14 perch into my boat and releasing a brookie pushing maybe 8"...a beautiful day which we had all to ourselves, nobody else on the whole pond! Except for about a thousand or so American toads which were mating all around us and singing up a storm all day long, and nothing else but the wind in the trees and the birds for sound.

The boys found a good spot to land and cook, and we brought cookware & fixins from the house, including the top shelf in my oven that served perfectly as a cooking grate over our wood fire. Todd cleaned them all up and we fried them along with potatoes, and some ostrich fern fiddleheads that Todd had collected at another stop on the way. Shore dinner in a perfect location, and then we went back out for brookies on dry flies, where there were a few #14-ish tan-brown caddis on the wing that brought up a few fish as the winds died down to nothing and the pond turned to glass. Not many though, things still aren't going on really strong around here yet, it's been so damned cold, but it will get much better.

The rest of the weekend we spent searching for morels (found just enough for pizzas!), photographing wildflowers (Trillium are finally at their peak even if the morels aren't!), and visiting old friends. Like last year, but instead of trout and chicken-of-the-woods, perch and morels...

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
Feathers5
Posts: 287
Feathers5 on May 24, 2016May 24th, 2016, 5:59 am EDT
Great pictorial. You guys look like you had a really nice time and a good meal. Thanks for posting.
Partsman
Partsman's profile picture
bancroft michigan

Posts: 321
Partsman on May 25, 2016May 25th, 2016, 4:31 am EDT
Looks like a good time was had by all. I was on the rifle yesterday, it was in the mid 80,s when I came in for lunch, looks like summer might be here.
Mike.
Martinlf
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Moderator
Palmyra PA

Posts: 3047
Martinlf on May 26, 2016May 26th, 2016, 9:50 am EDT
Great report. Some good fishing and eating. Those morels look delicious.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"

--Fred Chappell
Oldredbarn
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Novi, MI

Posts: 2600
Oldredbarn on May 31, 2016May 31st, 2016, 2:18 pm EDT
Looks like a fun time.

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
Steps25
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Connecticut

Posts: 31
Steps25 on Jun 1, 2016June 1st, 2016, 10:54 am EDT
Nice pics

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