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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 Ephemerella mucronata (Ephemerellidae) Mayfly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
This is an interesting one. Following the keys in Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019) and Jacobus et al. (2014), it keys clearly to Ephemerella. Jacobus et al provide a key to species, but some of the characteristics are tricky to interpret without illustrations. If I didn't make any mistakes, this one keys to Ephemerella mucronata, which has not previously been reported any closer to here than Montana and Alberta. The main character seems to fit well: "Abdominal terga with prominent, paired, subparallel, spiculate ridges." Several illustrations or descriptions of this holarctic species from the US and Europe seem to match, including the body length, tarsal claws and denticles, labial palp, and gill shapes. These sources include including Richard Allen's original description of this species in North America under the now-defunct name E. moffatae in Allen RK (1977) and the figures in this description of the species in Italy.
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 3 pictures. The message is below.
Never seen a brookie like this before
Big mushroom by the Pond
Goldenrods are in peak bloom around here right now
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Sep 17, 2016September 17th, 2016, 6:21 pm EDT
Well, they haven't been very big, but they have been biting...Wednesday night on The Rifle at Sage Lake Road (which closes two weeks from yesterday) was a beautiful night with ample caddisflies and a few mayflies, but the river would give me nothing over 9" or 10" so no pics. Last night on [REDACTED] Pond didn't yield anything bigger, but one of the brookies had a color variation I have never before seen. Notice the abundance of cream-colored spots WITHOUT pink dots and blue halos, like only 5 on each side and the rest empty. The other three (all smaller) I caught looked "normal" (and just gorgeous), so who knows? Somebody let a few splake go in there?? Anyone else seen this?

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

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