20 replies to this topic

[Istripbuggers]

My friends took this picture of what i belive is a salmonfly.. whats wierd is where they found it, it was on the north fork of the north fork of the american river out of emigrant gap ca. I havent even heard of a salmonfly hatch in this area, just wanted some conformation..
thanks,
Miles

Attached Files

•  IMG_4866.jpg   66.15KB   198 downloads
•  IMG_4701.jpg   31.38KB   185 downloads

[rockworm]

It does indeed look like a salmonfly: It has the size and colouration of Pteronarcys californica, which emerges in late April in California.

[williamhj]

Great pictures!  Thanks for posting them.

[flyDology]

Pteronarcys californica - the Giant Salmonfly. Finding it in California makes perfect sense.

[mikechell]

That's a wicked looking bug.  Good pictures.  Do fish eat those?

[sandflyx]

That's a wicked looking bug.  Good pictures.  Do fish eat those?

 fish love em...

[Byron]

I fish Eastern Idaho a lot.  There are great hatches of the Stonefly there as well.

Problem is, they hatch off the water.  It is when the female oviposits the eggs or they get blown to the water that they are available to the trout as a "dry fly".  

[JSzymczyk]

I havent even heard of a salmonfly hatch in this area, just wanted some conformation..
thanks,
Miles

 

just because they are present does not mean there will be a significant "hatch"...

[Byron]

As I mentioned, they do not hatch on the water. They crawl out and hatch on land.

[JSzymczyk]

As I mentioned, they do not hatch on the water. They crawl out and hatch on land.

got it... what I meant was in any given waterway the species may be present but not in enough numbers to constitute a key food source. There are Pteronarcys stoneflies present in our local streams too but not many at all... never see more than a few adults each year.

[peerless reels and bamboo]

Yes fish love them. As stated not in large numbers so fish may not anticipate them like other rivers that have huge hatches.

Here's one from the Madison.

Robert

[PondStalker]

Just to chime in here, anglers talk about following the Stonefly hatch on western rivers often.  I don't know if "hatch"  is an appropriate thing to call it.  As Bryon already mentioned, the Stonefly nymph crawls from the water and attaches itself to surrounding stream side vegetation where it goes through the process of drying off and wings developing.  They do not fly around like other bugs hatching.  They are very clumsy and are not swimmers either.  They either fall back in the water or they are blown back in and are at the mercy of the trout.  Maybe a better term would be to call it an Emergence of Stoneflies.

[mikechell]

Yeah ... because all of us fly anglers are so grammatical correct and verbally eloquent.

[Bryon Anderson]

 

As I mentioned, they do not hatch on the water. They crawl out and hatch on land.

got it... what I meant was in any given waterway the species may be present but not in enough numbers to constitute a key food source. There are Pteronarcys stoneflies present in our local streams too but not many at all... never see more than a few adults each year.

 

Same deal here in Michigan--salmonflies are present, but they don't ever seem to "do their thing" (I'm being careful to avoid the word "hatch" now ) in appreciable numbers simultaneously. There are enough of them around that a big salmonfly imitation is a good pattern to try at night (the Midwestern salmonfly appears after dark), but I've never seen more than a few adults at a time.

[BBBruce77]

Fishing the big Nymphs when they are migrating to the shore can be very effective when they start showing up. Skip casting the adult dries makes for  quite a departure from the usual casting methods that are done with a soft landing in mind. The bigger the splash the better with these clumsy critters. It's the one time in the Spring of the year that you can catch really big fish on a dry.