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.
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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.
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.
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Davez on Aug 1, 2007August 1st, 2007, 5:25 am EDT
Who here travels far to fly fish?
who here has had a MISERABLE experience on a trip?
I shared this one on another forum....
Left the house at 2am to make the 10 hour drive for a 5 day trip to the Ausable river in MI. didn't feel too good on the drive up. Hit pretty much every rest stop from PA to detroit.
get to the river and the cabin was, well a shack. it had a view of the stars, through the roof..... and it was early may, so nights went down into the 20s.
Put the drift boat in and did a float. Towards the end of the float, felt queesy. Got back to the cabin and ate a sandwich. puked.
that was day one.
woke up with th emost horrible body aches. it was the flu. called home, wife says both kids have the same thing. I left the cabin for grayling and booke da room at a decent hotel. warm bed, hot shower, recovery room.
spent the rest of that day pukin and sleeping. day 2, shot.
day three...
still puking, but the body aches were getting better. by late afternoon I was making a recovery. Decided to call the boys and try to fish.
I did a float with my two best buds. half way through the float a streamer comes out of nowhere and wails me in the right temple. instant pain, instant tears, instant headache. i saw colors for the rest of the float.
head back to the hotel rooom. day 3, shot.
day four... wake up and decide im going to fish. managed to fish without any trouble for a few hours. called home. wife is sick, one kid recovered. since we were going to leave in the morning anyways, i decide to bag it and head home solo.
I fished probably a total of 8 hours on a 4.5 day trip. how can it be that you spend 6 months arranging the schedules of 5 guys, planning it out and you just so happen to get stuck in the middle of the flu.
its my luck.
whats your story?
who here has had a MISERABLE experience on a trip?
I shared this one on another forum....
Left the house at 2am to make the 10 hour drive for a 5 day trip to the Ausable river in MI. didn't feel too good on the drive up. Hit pretty much every rest stop from PA to detroit.
get to the river and the cabin was, well a shack. it had a view of the stars, through the roof..... and it was early may, so nights went down into the 20s.
Put the drift boat in and did a float. Towards the end of the float, felt queesy. Got back to the cabin and ate a sandwich. puked.
that was day one.
woke up with th emost horrible body aches. it was the flu. called home, wife says both kids have the same thing. I left the cabin for grayling and booke da room at a decent hotel. warm bed, hot shower, recovery room.
spent the rest of that day pukin and sleeping. day 2, shot.
day three...
still puking, but the body aches were getting better. by late afternoon I was making a recovery. Decided to call the boys and try to fish.
I did a float with my two best buds. half way through the float a streamer comes out of nowhere and wails me in the right temple. instant pain, instant tears, instant headache. i saw colors for the rest of the float.
head back to the hotel rooom. day 3, shot.
day four... wake up and decide im going to fish. managed to fish without any trouble for a few hours. called home. wife is sick, one kid recovered. since we were going to leave in the morning anyways, i decide to bag it and head home solo.
I fished probably a total of 8 hours on a 4.5 day trip. how can it be that you spend 6 months arranging the schedules of 5 guys, planning it out and you just so happen to get stuck in the middle of the flu.
its my luck.
whats your story?
Troutnut on Aug 1, 2007August 1st, 2007, 6:03 am EDT
That just goes to show that people who say "a bad day fishing is better than a good way working" are a little bit full of it!
Thankfully I haven't had any trips nearly as bad as yours. The worst fishing experiences I can remember involved cold, rain, and no fish, but no unusual disasters.
Thankfully I haven't had any trips nearly as bad as yours. The worst fishing experiences I can remember involved cold, rain, and no fish, but no unusual disasters.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
RleeP on Aug 1, 2007August 1st, 2007, 6:35 am EDT
Back when I was a mere pinfeather on the great Amherst Pheasant skin of life, my Dad and some of his buddies used to make an annual trek to Algonquin PP north of Toronto to troll (rhymes with droll, not coincidentally) with spoons and big tandem spinners for lakers. In those days, small outboards had not yet been banned in the park. When I was 12, I was allowed for the first time to go along.
It was just my Dad, me and his buddies Walter and Elmer this trip. As usual, the trip took place the week before Memorial Day before the lakers go really deep for the summer. The misery started on the first day when a sudden cold front came through, kicked up a 3 foot chop on Tea Lake in the NW corner of the Park and stranded us overnight on a rock outcropping with nothing to eat but a hershey bar split 4 ways. The next morning when the laked died down somewhat, we make it back to camp to find that Walter had not been methodical enough in stringing the main food pack between 2 trees and the bears had rifled it.
The next day, it dropped another 8-10 degrees and snowed about 4 inches. The fishing was lousy and after the bear episode, we need it to be a lot better. We dredged up enough specs and small lakers to make a half a meal for the 4 of us though.
The next day, the sun came out and it went to 50F by noon. Things were looking up. We even got a couple of decent fish (5-6 lb.). Then my dad suddenly started having to go over to shore every half hour so he could splash the birch trees. The last time we took him over, he let out a howl and threw up.
Kidney stone..
So Elmer, a retired PA game warden who while nearly 70, was pretty spry, had us run him over to the far bank where the remains of a log road could be seen. He walked 11 miles out to the ranger station at Kiosk, I think it was, and got some help. About 11 that night, he came back with them in a pickup truck and we ran my dad over to the shore and they took him out to the hospital prone in the bed of the truck. My dad says you haven't lived until you ride 11 miles or so over logs and gravel and 18" ruts in a truck bed with a kidney stone. The next evening, they brought him back and we went over and got him.
The next morning, we (so to speak) called in the dogs, whizzed on the fire and headed it on back to Erie by the lake and home.
It was snowing again anyway...
It was just my Dad, me and his buddies Walter and Elmer this trip. As usual, the trip took place the week before Memorial Day before the lakers go really deep for the summer. The misery started on the first day when a sudden cold front came through, kicked up a 3 foot chop on Tea Lake in the NW corner of the Park and stranded us overnight on a rock outcropping with nothing to eat but a hershey bar split 4 ways. The next morning when the laked died down somewhat, we make it back to camp to find that Walter had not been methodical enough in stringing the main food pack between 2 trees and the bears had rifled it.
The next day, it dropped another 8-10 degrees and snowed about 4 inches. The fishing was lousy and after the bear episode, we need it to be a lot better. We dredged up enough specs and small lakers to make a half a meal for the 4 of us though.
The next day, the sun came out and it went to 50F by noon. Things were looking up. We even got a couple of decent fish (5-6 lb.). Then my dad suddenly started having to go over to shore every half hour so he could splash the birch trees. The last time we took him over, he let out a howl and threw up.
Kidney stone..
So Elmer, a retired PA game warden who while nearly 70, was pretty spry, had us run him over to the far bank where the remains of a log road could be seen. He walked 11 miles out to the ranger station at Kiosk, I think it was, and got some help. About 11 that night, he came back with them in a pickup truck and we ran my dad over to the shore and they took him out to the hospital prone in the bed of the truck. My dad says you haven't lived until you ride 11 miles or so over logs and gravel and 18" ruts in a truck bed with a kidney stone. The next evening, they brought him back and we went over and got him.
The next morning, we (so to speak) called in the dogs, whizzed on the fire and headed it on back to Erie by the lake and home.
It was snowing again anyway...
Martinlf on Aug 1, 2007August 1st, 2007, 1:09 pm EDT
Hi-larious. Now, that is. I can't top either of these, so I'll just have to be sympathetic and know mine is coming.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
Shawnny3 on Aug 2, 2007August 2nd, 2007, 2:03 am EDT
Yeah, Louis, I feel the same way. Thanks for putting all my "bad" days on the stream into perspective, guys. There's no way I could top those stories, but I can relate a few funny occurrences at my brother's expense (the one you fished with, Louis).
First, a bit of history. My brother's wife is one of those who has to talk with him about 12 times a day for no apparent reason (another bit of perspective that helps me appreciate my "bad" days). He's also in business, so he has this terrible habit of leaving his cell phone on while fishing (to me, often his fishing partner, this is an annoyance that borders on sin). Well, one day my brother is fishing and hooks into a really nice fish, the kind you might sniff a few times per season in a good year. As he's playing it, he gets a phone call, and ANSWERS THE PHONE (the Unforgivable Sin). As he entertains his wife's inane babble, of COURSE the fish comes off.
Since he spat in the face of the fishing gods that day, the stream has played some cruel tricks on him and his technology. The first time was on a day in January, one of those days so cold your guides are freezing up every few casts and the fish are colder than the weather. We're leaving the stream, wondering why we'd gone in the first place, wading through knee-deep water, and I suddenly hear a sound like a tree falling into the water. As I turn around to look, my brother's just pulling his face out of the water. As I stand there shaking my head, he takes his phone out of his chest pocket - yup, shot. It's one thing to fall when the water's up to your chest and off-color, but he took this dive in crystal-clear, knee-deep water... that was about 31 degrees. No way to explain that one without invoking the supernatural, and I made sure to tell him so.
There have been subsequent soakings of his phone I'll spare you, but one more incident bears mentioning. On our most recent trip, he took a digital camera to catch a few memories. This time, wise to the stream's strategy of soaking his electronics when he least expected it, he puts his phone and camera into zip-lock bags. At one point, he takes a tumble (this time saving face by at least doing it in some deep pocket water), and smiles afterwards, "At least I put my camera and phone in zip-lock bags!" When we get back to the car, hours later, he reaches into his pocket and finds - yup, the bag with his camera had a hole in it. The hole had somehow let a ton of water in but none out - his camera was swimming around in there like a goldfish he'd won at the county fair.
The lesson is a simple one: Don't talk to your wife while you're fishing.
-Shawn
First, a bit of history. My brother's wife is one of those who has to talk with him about 12 times a day for no apparent reason (another bit of perspective that helps me appreciate my "bad" days). He's also in business, so he has this terrible habit of leaving his cell phone on while fishing (to me, often his fishing partner, this is an annoyance that borders on sin). Well, one day my brother is fishing and hooks into a really nice fish, the kind you might sniff a few times per season in a good year. As he's playing it, he gets a phone call, and ANSWERS THE PHONE (the Unforgivable Sin). As he entertains his wife's inane babble, of COURSE the fish comes off.
Since he spat in the face of the fishing gods that day, the stream has played some cruel tricks on him and his technology. The first time was on a day in January, one of those days so cold your guides are freezing up every few casts and the fish are colder than the weather. We're leaving the stream, wondering why we'd gone in the first place, wading through knee-deep water, and I suddenly hear a sound like a tree falling into the water. As I turn around to look, my brother's just pulling his face out of the water. As I stand there shaking my head, he takes his phone out of his chest pocket - yup, shot. It's one thing to fall when the water's up to your chest and off-color, but he took this dive in crystal-clear, knee-deep water... that was about 31 degrees. No way to explain that one without invoking the supernatural, and I made sure to tell him so.
There have been subsequent soakings of his phone I'll spare you, but one more incident bears mentioning. On our most recent trip, he took a digital camera to catch a few memories. This time, wise to the stream's strategy of soaking his electronics when he least expected it, he puts his phone and camera into zip-lock bags. At one point, he takes a tumble (this time saving face by at least doing it in some deep pocket water), and smiles afterwards, "At least I put my camera and phone in zip-lock bags!" When we get back to the car, hours later, he reaches into his pocket and finds - yup, the bag with his camera had a hole in it. The hole had somehow let a ton of water in but none out - his camera was swimming around in there like a goldfish he'd won at the county fair.
The lesson is a simple one: Don't talk to your wife while you're fishing.
-Shawn
Jewelry-Quality Artistic Salmon Flies, by Shawn Davis
www.davisflydesigns.com
www.davisflydesigns.com
Smallstream on Aug 2, 2007August 2nd, 2007, 6:37 am EDT
Its funny you mentioned that becuase as of this morning, I no longer have a camera because of water.
Chris_3g
Posts: 59
Posts: 59
Chris_3g on Aug 3, 2007August 3rd, 2007, 3:49 am EDT
CRAP! That's why I lost this football of a fish the other day - I pissed off the fishing gods!
I was fishing really late the other night (past midnight), and my wife called, so I answered the phone to make sure she didn't change the locks on me before I got home. I wasn't actually fishing when I answered the phone,, but I was in the stream, wading to a different locale from which to fish - I know, it's a stretch.
Roughly one week later, on the same stream, I hooked and lost what could have been my largest fish of the season. That was all the action I saw all day - no love! At least it had nothing to do with my lack of experience - yeah right. Thanks a lot Shawn, it all makes sense now. I'll start praying for forgiveness, and hopefully be on good terms by the time September-ish rolls around!
Chris.
P.S. - A note on the cameras. I went fishing in CO on The Big Thompson. My wife hooked her first rainbow, and I freaked out and accidentally dropped my digital camera in the water - the fish scraped the tippet on an undercut rock and was never seen again! I almost immediately took the batteries out, and then we let it dry out for the better part of a week. For a while, one setting was on the fritz, but the entire camera works fine now and we didn't lose the pictures of my first big rainbow! Moral of the story is to keep your cameras in zip-lock bags, but if they still manage to end up in the drink, don't toss them until you let them dry out completely!
I was fishing really late the other night (past midnight), and my wife called, so I answered the phone to make sure she didn't change the locks on me before I got home. I wasn't actually fishing when I answered the phone,, but I was in the stream, wading to a different locale from which to fish - I know, it's a stretch.
Roughly one week later, on the same stream, I hooked and lost what could have been my largest fish of the season. That was all the action I saw all day - no love! At least it had nothing to do with my lack of experience - yeah right. Thanks a lot Shawn, it all makes sense now. I'll start praying for forgiveness, and hopefully be on good terms by the time September-ish rolls around!
Chris.
P.S. - A note on the cameras. I went fishing in CO on The Big Thompson. My wife hooked her first rainbow, and I freaked out and accidentally dropped my digital camera in the water - the fish scraped the tippet on an undercut rock and was never seen again! I almost immediately took the batteries out, and then we let it dry out for the better part of a week. For a while, one setting was on the fritz, but the entire camera works fine now and we didn't lose the pictures of my first big rainbow! Moral of the story is to keep your cameras in zip-lock bags, but if they still manage to end up in the drink, don't toss them until you let them dry out completely!
Troutnut on Aug 3, 2007August 3rd, 2007, 8:51 am EDT
It's one thing to fall when the water's up to your chest and off-color, but he took this dive in crystal-clear, knee-deep water... that was about 31 degrees. No way to explain that one without invoking the supernatural, and I made sure to tell him so.
On the contrary, I think that's the easiest time to fall. In deep water or murky water, I'm very careful. Clear, knee-deep water gives you a sense of confidence that makes it easy to trip and nose-dive into the drink.
There have been subsequent soakings of his phone I'll spare you, but one more incident bears mentioning.
After some of the stories in this thread, I think those of us who use 'bears' as a verb can count ourselves lucky. :)
By the way, for those suffering with cameras, buy one of the fully waterproof, underwater-picture-capable Pentaxes!
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Konchu on Aug 3, 2007August 3rd, 2007, 5:27 pm EDT
One of my mis-adventures involved floating down a river in a belly-boat during a lightning storm. I drove eight hours for one day of fly fishing on this river with my wife and a friend. My wife's chest waders sprung a leak on this cool spring day, so that pretty much shot her fun with no backup pair. The wind picked up, with unpredictable and swirling gusts, before the storm came in, so I think I spent more time working tangles than fishing that day...
There's got to be some other lightning or tangles stories out there.
There's got to be some other lightning or tangles stories out there.
Konchu on Aug 3, 2007August 3rd, 2007, 5:33 pm EDT
...There's also the time I fell off a bridge in the middle of North Dakota and bruised my kidney (you can imagine the surprise within a few hours that indicated the problem), but that was mayfly collecting, not flyfishing, so I guess it does not count.
Shawnny3 on Aug 4, 2007August 4th, 2007, 1:34 am EDT
You know you love bugs when you're jumping off bridges to catch them.
I have a strange admiration for you, Konchu.
-Shawn
I have a strange admiration for you, Konchu.
-Shawn
Jewelry-Quality Artistic Salmon Flies, by Shawn Davis
www.davisflydesigns.com
www.davisflydesigns.com
CaseyP on Aug 4, 2007August 4th, 2007, 4:20 am EDT
By the way, for those suffering with cameras, buy one of the fully waterproof, underwater-picture-capable Pentaxes!
Sony makes a remarkably tiny, flat camera that fits in a shirt pocket and takes really good photos, like those ones on the Yorkshire threads. they make a waterproof box for on-stream photos. the whole thing fits in a vest or wader pocket. you can even take very close pictures of bugs so you can ask the questions this site was invented for. http://www.troutnut.com/topic/753#3563
and when you fall in the water with your pocket unzipped, there is a nifty yellow bobble so you can chase the camera downstream and then remember to attach the lanyard to your vest next time. (and you wonder why i prefer small streams...)
"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
Martinlf on Aug 4, 2007August 4th, 2007, 5:30 am EDT
Another trick for drying out wet electronics is to immerse the device in a tightly sealed container of rice. The rice pulls the moisture out helping dry it thoroughly.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
Konchu on Aug 4, 2007August 4th, 2007, 9:15 am EDT
CaseyP:
Specifically, which Sony camera are you talking about? Someone I know is rather tough on equipment, and this sounds like a good device for me, er, him.
Specifically, which Sony camera are you talking about? Someone I know is rather tough on equipment, and this sounds like a good device for me, er, him.
Jmd123 on Aug 7, 2007August 7th, 2007, 3:50 pm EDT
My worst trips all involve breaking rods while fish are rising. (I must be especially hard on rods - see my other posts.) It happened omce during a Hexagenia hatch over big fat nesting bluegills - it so happens I broke BOTH of my rods that night, one after a 10" black crappie, the next after a 15" largemouth (yes, there were more than just bluegill out there). This, in fact, was the whole reason I bought my RedStart 5 weight - it was an emergency!
More recently, fishing a small man-made lake in Troy, MI where my folks live, the ferrel came loose on that RedStart and it snapped in the middle of a steady run of 9-10" yellow perch (that's right, yellow perch!) I was catching on streamers (and outfishing bait users right next to me, to boot).
I should mention that I actually haven't fished for trout much in recent years, doing mostly warmwater instead. Helps that I lived in central Texas for 2 1/2 years (HUGE sunfish and many spp. of them) and a year in Georgia before that. My fly-fishing "life list of species" had grown considerably, and I highly recommend warmwater flyrodding to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. I need to get back into trout, though...
Jonathon
More recently, fishing a small man-made lake in Troy, MI where my folks live, the ferrel came loose on that RedStart and it snapped in the middle of a steady run of 9-10" yellow perch (that's right, yellow perch!) I was catching on streamers (and outfishing bait users right next to me, to boot).
I should mention that I actually haven't fished for trout much in recent years, doing mostly warmwater instead. Helps that I lived in central Texas for 2 1/2 years (HUGE sunfish and many spp. of them) and a year in Georgia before that. My fly-fishing "life list of species" had grown considerably, and I highly recommend warmwater flyrodding to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. I need to get back into trout, though...
Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
CaseyP on Aug 12, 2007August 12th, 2007, 3:00 pm EDT
Specifically, which Sony camera are you talking about? Someone I know is rather tough on equipment, and this sounds like a good device for me, er, him.
no one in the world can be harder on stuff than me!! it's a Sony Cybershot, model DSC-T7. measures about 3 1/4 by 2 by 1/2 inches.
the waterproof case is called a Sportspack, cybershot SPK-THA.
the camera is embarassingly expensive (even my best, most favorite rod didn't cost this much), but it does take wonderful photos. my only complaint is that the clear plastic back panel of the waterproof case got all scratched up, so it's a little difficult to see the big display on the back of the camera. the little lens window, though, is still clear, and it's still waterproof after two years. it's going to be ages before i have to replace this thing. i checked just now and it's possible to find both items if you Google them.
sorry to be so slow with the answer--was in MT. just as dry out there, with river closures putting pressure on the few that are open, and only one's secret spring creeks offering much fun. ah, but those that did bite...
"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
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