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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.

I spent more than an hour casting to several rising trout in this pool and caught only two. Its clear water and tricky currents harbor dozens of free-rising, usually very hard-to-catch fish. From Enfield Creek in New York

Stream photos

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Zapada cinctipes (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly NymphZapada cinctipes (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph
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.
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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.

  1. Trout, Salmon, and Grayling Streams
    2. ›
  2. Alaska
    3. ›
  3. The Copper River

  1. Trout, Salmon, and Grayling Streams
    2. ›
  2. Alaska
    3. ›
  3. The Copper River

Landscape & scenery photos from the Copper River

The Copper River in Alaska
I like this one. Glacial river, taiga, tundra, and the perpetual ice cover of a massive high ridge dozens of miles away in the Wrangell Mountains. From the Copper River in Alaska
The Copper River is another of Alaska's major glacial drainages, hosting huge salmon runs which spread out more thinly into its clearwater tributaries to spawn. This panorama is best viewed full-size. From the Copper River in Alaska
Another panorama of the huge Copper River. From the Copper River in Alaska
The Copper River in Alaska
This is a pretty cool silhouette of a bald eagle carrying some food, even though it isn't terribly well-focused or well-lit. I was actually driving when I took it (though it was on a no-traffic campground driveway, so it wasn't unsafe) and the eagle swooped into the roadway right in front of me, then flew around to the side and gave me this profile. From the Copper River in Alaska
A raven flies over the Copper River. From the Copper River in Alaska
A raven returns to its cliff-side nest along the Copper River. From the Copper River in Alaska
The Copper River in Alaska
Here's part of my final catch, though many more fish are hidden in the turbid glacial water. There are 40 salmon in all. The limit for a household dipnetting permit is normally 30, but this year the sockeye run greatly exceeded expectations, so the Alaska Department of Fish & Game increased everyone's limit by 10 for several weeks.
Dipnetting to fill the freezer with salmon is not as tidy as catch & release fly fishing. Here's the process: 1. Beat the salmon as hard as you can between the eyes with a club, several times if needed, while it's still in the net. This makes it stop flopping so you can remove it from the net. 2. Cut the base of the gill arches on one side with scissors, severing major arteries that send blood spurting out of the unconscious fish's body, quickly killing it and assuring ideal flavor. 3. Thread the stringer in through one of the gills and out the mouth, and stick the fish back in the glacial river to keep cool. After whacking ten or fifteen fish in the same spot, the riverbank looks like it warrants a CSI team. From the Copper River in Alaska
This is the home base for the Chitina dipnetting fishery that supplies thousands of Alaskans with much (if not most) of their annual protein. Many people pay a jetboat charter to ferry them down to prime spots in the canyon, and ferry their hundreds of pounds of fish back up. Others follow the trail to which this bridge leads and negotiate the steep canyon wall themselves, with their fish, and haul them back with the help of an ATV. From the Copper River in Alaska

References

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