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salmobytes

Pott Sticker

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Not one of my better photographs.  I often make fly photos in a light tent with special equipment, so I can make a maybe 12 or reven 20 exposure focus stack.

This is a one shot photo at F9 with a macro lens and extension tubes so it ends up as more than 1:1 magnification.  I'll head to the Spring Creek later this week to try and photograph some live PMDs in the field.  A new mirrorless camera makes ultra-macro easier, because it makes manual focus easier. Plus you can shoot ten frames a second.  One or two out of those ten will be the sharpest.  We'll see.

In the meantime this was practice on a Pott Sticker--a hair hackle wet fly that flares out nicely without any weaving.  Tie the hair so it faces forward.  Push it back with the barrel of an empty ball point pen. Push the bead back so it pushes against the hair and keeps it there.  Whip finish in front of the bead.  Slobber on some head cement.  Or glue.  

Woven hair hackles are a great tradition but these are pretty good too. And lickedy split fast by comparison.  Ultra macro without a light tent is hard.

 

up-DSC00449_Pott-sticker.jpg 

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Very nice photos. I have found a neutral tan background works, too. Also, have chocolate brown and charcoal grey cloth if needed. BTW, that looks like an effective fly!

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salmo, both your photos and your flies are always top notch. Your stacked bug shots are unreal. I use a macro cheap point and shoot and am actually fairly happy with shots but they always favor on part of the fly more than another. Your stacking eliminates that discrepancy.

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:=)) I can do stacking in the basement but not at stream side.  Point and shoots even DSLRs etc can do good macros but can't actually magnify much.  That's what I'm working on.  How to turn a camera into a portable low power microscope.  There is some incredible work out there on youtube and other places.  I'm not there yet.  I am with the studio work but not with the streamside stuff.

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I have two cameras and use the macro setting on both. The Canon SX530 HD takes great photos with +4 and +2 diopters.  My Canon T7 needs a +10 but isn't as close at the other camera. Tried +2 and +4 but not as good. Can't stack more as the +10 has too much convex curve. T7  has a 18-55mm lens that is marked Macro but, IMHO, not a true macro. Got a good macro lens on the wish list.

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For some reason, the cheap cameras I've tried recently have all started getting "fuzzy" after a few pictures.  I had a cheapo a few years ago finally crap out on me after about 10 years of great pictures.  I can't seem to duplicate that one.

Your pictures above, Salmo, both look good.  I do like the second one better ... at f16, it's more "in focus" than the first one.

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This is probably been done, but have you cleaned the lens? Fuzzy pictures- are you shooting freehand or with a tripod or monopod? You might check the background to see if Bigfoot is there. Fuzzy pictures are only for photographing Bigfoot.😁

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Sony ar7iii body  $2000

90mm macro lens $1100

macro extension tubes $129

macro ring light $169

....it's worse than fishing tackle.  

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Ouch.  I went to O'Hairs Spring Creek today to photograph Pale Morning Duns.  But. Ouch. There weren't any. 

The hatches on Montana's Paradise Valley Spring Creeks (O'Hair, DePuy and Nelson) have been declining for years.  It appears they are now near extinct.  I stopped in at a local fly shop.  "They only hatch well on cooler days" they said.  Back in the 1990s when I was a spring creek guide they hatched every day.  On good days they were thick as hair on a dog's back. But even on the slow days there was still a hatching event, usually between 11am and 2pm.  On cloudy days the PMD hatch would last even later into the afternoon.

Now it's..............not even a thing.  The guy at the fly shop said "You shoulda been here yesterday." ..............it was 10 degrees cooler yesterday. But still.  This is not a good development.  I have my hunches about why.  But I won't say it now.  Not without some evidence anyway.

 

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The temperature of the water from a spring is the average annual temperature for that location. In other words if the average air temperature is 50 degrees for the year, the temperature underground will be that same 50 degrees. This underground temperature would also be the temperature of the spring water.

Even though this year is an extremely hot year, the temperature of the water source of the spring creek water should not really reflect this very hot year since the source of the spring water is not affected much by a single year's temperature.

If the spring creek fisheries or you have actually kept records of the water temps over the last 20 years; and the temps are climbing, that would be very educational. That would be proof that rising water temps are the cause of the declining hatches. I assume this is what you are saying is happening and I think that you are correct. But the proof would be historic records of water temperature.

I can understand that insects would hatch when it is cloudy and cooler, but how do they know that a cloudy day this year is hotter than a cloudy day 20 years ago? They don't. The declining hatches are because the overall populations are down, and not because a lower % from the same population is hatching.

Is your "hunch" that there are more wells for irrigation and that is lowering the flow of cool water into the spring creeks?

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No no.  I suspect Roundup and other pesticides.  The mayfly decline on the Paradise Valley spring creeks has been going on for years.  I went five or six years ago and found a meager hatch.  In the 1990s the mayfly hatches were so thick you had to see it to believe it. Today I found no hatch at all. I didn't see a single mayfly. Not one!   I was there at the right time too.

There has been a major grasshopper event this year in Eastern Montana.  They've been spraying like crazy East of Billings.  Wildlife groups are all up in arms because they will be killing all insects there and not just grasshoppers, which kills the grasslands birds too.

Are they spraying for grasshoppers in Western Montana too?  I'm not sure.  They have been spraying for weeds here for years.  At DePuy spring creek I have watched a four wheel ATV with a big white plastic tank on back zooming around for hours at a time spraying for leafy spurge.  They spray for thistles and broad leaf weeds in the hay fields.  They spray for wild oats in the wheat fields. 

I'm not sure if they are using grasshopper pesticide this far West.  But I did only see semi-microscopic hoppers.  The big locust like hoppers that clack and fly used to be common this time of year.  I didn't see a single one.

The only hoppers i did see were all so small you could barely see them, like the following mayfly-sized micro hopper.  This guy was less than 1/2" inch long.

The Montana tail-water hatches (primarily the Big Horn and Missouri) are not what they used to be either, but they are holding up better than the valley spring creeks.  The BWO hatches on the Missouri are still a fun time to fish, although nothing like they used to be.

 

up-DSC00513_Micro-hopper.jpg
 

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How are the Silvercreek/Loving Creek hatches holding up?  It's been 15 years since I fished there.  Back then the public meadows were crowded but the hatches were good.  The fish were so spooky and well educated I had to fish hard for 3 or 4 fish.  I did better swinging micro-streamers, even during the hatch.  I've found that to be true at Harriman on the Henry's Fork too. I've been hearing depressing reports about the Henry's Fork.  But I haven't been up there to see it for myself.

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59 minutes ago, salmobytes said:

How are the Silvercreek/Loving Creek hatches holding up?  It's been 15 years since I fished there.  Back then the public meadows were crowded but the hatches were good.  The fish were so spooky and well educated I had to fish hard for 3 or 4 fish.  I did better swinging micro-streamers, even during the hatch.  I've found that to be true at Harriman on the Henry's Fork too. I've been hearing depressing reports about the Henry's Fork.  But I haven't been up there to see it for myself.

I'm heading up there this Saturday for a week, I'll let you know.

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