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Fly Fishing Idaho

Sampling Aquatic insects?

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Replace the pill vial/bucket with a kick net and you will likely capture lots of interesting bugs. (A kick net is just a 2 or 3 ft length of screen or fine net stretched between two lengths of wood. Like a very short tennis net.) Transfer your catch to a shallow, white enamel pan with a bit of water so you can see the nymphs better.

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Pretty hard to trap the flow in a bucket and even harder in a small bottle. The current will wash every thing right in and back out. A small net will work much better. Many people sample streams, and its a very good way to learn about what is there. It will also help to get some reference materials to help you identify the nymphs and other things you find. These days, a good digital macro image can take the place of saving samples. I drop a short scale in the plate when I take pictures so I have size reference.

 

Once you have samples or good pictures, then you should learn as much as you can about what you have found. Knowing that you have a small bug about 10mm long is ok. You can tie something to imitate it easy enough. Learning what that insect (nymph or lara) is will allow you to study it. You can then plan to be on the water when it is next supposed to be hatching. If you learn what it is, you can then tie a pattern to match the dun, even if you only captured the nymph.

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In Wisconsin, I believe it is illegal to disturb the stream bed without DNR approval. However, I've never heard of anyone being cited for it.

 

Our TU Chapter does aquatic sampling on a trout stream with high school advanced biology, chemistry and physics classes. The high school has permission to conduct the sampling.

 

The Wisconsin DNR is present and a DNR aquatic biologist describes each organism that the students find, and how it fits into the ecology of the stream. Back at the high school each of the classes uses the information from the other classes to correlate how the stream chemistry, and stream flow correlate with what organisms were found and where they were found.

 

2 Students using a kick net while and a physics student uses a rope to measure the stream width to calculate flow data.

IMGP0094.jpg

 

 

Bags of organisms ready to be shown. Organisms are categorized by the students as to the type of water they are captured in (see physics below) and the type of water chemistry they were in (see chemistry below)

DSC00236.jpg

 

 

In the photo below the biologist shows the student a fresh water lamprey.

Lamprey.jpg

 

The DNR also shocks the stream to show the students the trout that are in a short stream segment. Here they explain how shocking works.

Shockingtalk.jpg

 

ShockingA.jpg

 

 

Brown and brook trout.

IMGP0350.jpg

 

Stream Chemistry set for Advanced Chemistry class. Used to test for dissolved oxygen, Ph, dissolved phosphates, water hardness, temperature, etc. The old style test are compared to the finding using modern electronic probes (see test of spring below).

chemkit.jpg

 

Dissolved oxygen test

WaterB.jpg

 

Electronic testing of a spring flowing into the stream to compare it with the stream.

SpringTemp.jpg

 

Advanced physics students calculating stream flow and volume by taking measurements to calculate the average of stream depth, water speed, and stream width.

streamvel.jpg

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WOW!!! What an excellent school program. More schools should be in a position to just such things for, and with, their students!

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Interesting! Can anyone elaborate on what they tend to do when they arrive at a place they are new to fishing and so on? Do you carry a small net, bottles to put the bugs in and a note pad? If you do carry a note pad, what sort of information would you be recording, month/day/year...temperatures etc?

 

Do you mostly just look at disturbing the river bottom as the main method of getting insects and if something happens to fly around you scoop it up or what? Its all new to me and basically everywhere i go to fish is new to me as im just a newb in general. Thanks for the help!!

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Chris...

 

I am not certain who you are referring to when you say "...what they tend to do...".

 

If you are referring to the students, they are learning several different things, such as: how to use scientific collecting gear, both for fish and for water parameters; how to properly record their observations; how to properly handle and preserve biological specimens, etc.

 

If you are referring to the fishermen, there are numerous small vest-sized books available for starting a log with the date; location; what the water temp. is; what bugs are you see in the air and on the stream side vegetation; time of day; cloud cover; water color and clarity; what the nymphs, and other aquatic organisms were that were caught; what flies worked, etc. If you do this every time you fish, and especially if you fish the same stream frequently, you should, in a matter of a few years, have sufficient information on that stream at a particular time of the year to be able to pretty well predict what bugs will work best. In other words, past history is a pretty good predictor of what the future will hold for any particular stream at any particular time of the year. Over a sufficient period of years,even you can pretty well predict what to expect with given water flows.

 

Hope this answers your question.

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ahh yes, sorry. I basically meant to ask what do the other fellow fisher's on the site do when they bug collect/take notes. Thanks for your detailed reply, that really helps :)

 

P.S. I found a couple nets, not really sure which would be best, 1 id like a good river/water net which these would be, plus an in air or land bug catcher.

http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/shaft-pond-p-1672.html?osCsid=r0b4oflv64os90mk1m4lc5mlp6

http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/skimming-wtelescoping-handle-p-5883.html

the first net is deep, the 2nd shallow, i like the shallow one but i would imagine it would be difficult to hold bugs in it if they are caught on land/air. What is everyones thoughts

 

Cheers!

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ahh yes, sorry. I basically meant to ask what do the other fellow fisher's on the site do when they bug collect/take notes. Thanks for your detailed reply, that really helps :)

 

P.S. I found a couple nets, not really sure which would be best, 1 id like a good river/water net which these would be, plus an in air or land bug catcher.

http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/shaft-pond-p-1672.html?osCsid=r0b4oflv64os90mk1m4lc5mlp6

http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/skimming-wtelescoping-handle-p-5883.html

the first net is deep, the 2nd shallow, i like the shallow one but i would imagine it would be difficult to hold bugs in it if they are caught on land/air. What is everyones thoughts

 

Cheers!

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Chris...

 

If you have a 'standard' trout landing net, you can buy fine mesh nets made to fit over the frame for sampling the bugs in streams. They should be more than adequate. Once out of the water, the bugs themselves have trouble moving; so, jumping out of the net is not a problem. Check your local fly shop for them.

 

The nets in your link appear to be way yonder more than you will need to sample a stream for fishing purposes.

 

Cheers!

Frank

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I treated myself to a landing net that has a section of sampling mesh in the base. so i can scoop surface bugs and nymphs out for a quick test. doesnt catch the flow as i feared it might but DONT hook your fly in it.

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