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Entomology: fly life in rivers and lochs

Started by Black-Don, February 17, 2011, 09:40:09 PM

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whinging pom

Quote from: Billy on February 23, 2011, 09:18:28 PM
Does  anyone  know  where  i  can  get  or  has  a  design  for  the  nets  they  use  for  taking  samples  of  river  insect  life?  I  have  fancied  doing  this  for  while  and  sampling  before  i  start  to  fish.  Any  suggestions  for  literature  would  also  be  very  welcome.
Billy

Billy for kick sampling we use a standard net, as do every one else who monitors. They are a bit pricy though:-
http://www.gbnets-uk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_2&zenid=799581ea1a10d3bf6bdda71b55c923db

and probably too combersome for what you want.

When I go down the stream, as I also collect samples for monitoring schemes i carry two nets in my pockets.
The first is a roll out screen that you hold in the food lane and it filters everything coming down so you can see whats drifting and about to hatch.
Stuart Crofts, sells these through his Torrentis range:-
http://www.pennineflyfishingguides.co.uk/torrentis.htm

The net I use most is a fold away butterfly net which collapses down to about the size of 20 fags and fits in my pocket easily. When you pull it out it springs open and is great for catching insects on the wing.
http://www.nhbs.com/crushable_pocket_butterfly_net_tefno_160774.html

This will be replaced this year though for a slightly cheaper version, that has white netting. The black net can be a pain in the butt in the dusk trying to find micro caddis and transfer them to their doom in the collecting jars.

The best way by far of learning is to go on one of the entomology for anglers courses run by the FBA. There is one at Glasgow Uni on Loch lomond on April 9th. It is run by Stuart Crofts, who is far from a boring boffin. and as an ex international captain of the rivers fly fishing team, certainly looks from the anglers viewpoint. His enthusiam is infectious. The web site is here but you will have to press a few links to see the course details.
http://www.fba.org.uk/fba-training-courses.
Download the 2011 course details. I am driving up to the windermere course.There always more to learn.

Books; some one mentioned Goddard and Trout fly recognition is a great help. But I tend to need a few books to cross reference. My favorite is An Anglers Entomology by  Harris. Both books are easily found second hand for a few quid.

Thankfully the fish on our river dont ignore the caddis... unless the BWO's are around or some other small olive. But at last knockings a sedge pattern is almost a nightly requirement. Saying that I am quite sure there will be other waters where the Adults are mostly ignored.

hope that helps

Malcolm

I have seen trout take dry sedges enthusiastically but not often.

There's a loch I know in Invernesshire. One of the two or three best lochs I've ever fished. It has a hatch of big orange-yellow buzzers that I've never seen before and when these are hatching the fish are always on. Some nights it's sedges and...nothing. The water can be covered in them but as far as dry fly action is concerned you'll wait a long time.

Oddly I think dry sedge imitations rise many more fish than the natural which makes me think that they often take it for something else.   
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Billy

Thanks for that. Great information and I think this topic is going to be a popular one.

I'll be doing a bit of surfing for this stuff at lunchtime today.

Billy

whinging pom

Quote from: Malcolm on February 24, 2011, 01:59:17 AM


Oddly I think dry sedge imitations rise many more fish than the natural which makes me think that they often take it for something else.   

I have wondered about that too. I wonder if its another trigger: the movement which wakes the trout up to them.
The naturals do tend to make a terrific fuss about leaving the surface sometimes, and bushy pattern skittered across the surface ( as opposed to dragged) does get some terrific chases and lunged takes, when a drifted sedge pattern is casually looked at and then ignored.


Black-Don

Quote from: Exerod on February 24, 2011, 06:48:06 PM
Down here inthe Westcountry one of the first really good hatches of the year is the grannom sedge in April. The trout certainly hit the adult flies hard as do the early sea trout if they have turned up.
Andy

What's the difference between Grannom and other Sedges ?

whinging pom

The grannom is medium size ( about 10mm), and one of the earliest appearing caddis of the season. It appears in huge hatchs and falls on some waters and becomes a notable season much like mayflies and the BWO's.


They are widespread from South england to Perthshire in the north. The first recorded sighting last year was April 12th and the last in May 25th.
They are confined to running water only, The larvae live attached  to weeds or rocks. filtering food that passes them in the current. the case is attached to the object at the open front end and is constucted of green cut leafs making a long angular construction that is square in cross section

It is very strongly marked The female is known as the green tail as she carries her mass of eggs in a sort of purse on the end of her abdomen before laying them in the water surface.


Photos of female grannom by Stuart Crofts

Malcolm

The grannom maybe the only insect that has closed a road in Britain. The river Avon flows through Salisbury and one year the hatch was so heavy clogging up both windscreen and the air such that the road over the Avon had to be closed. I was living in Wiltshire  at the time and I remember it made the headlines of the local newspaper. It would be in the mid 80s. I don't know of this ever happening elsewhere.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

whinging pom

Quote from: Ardbeg on February 24, 2011, 09:35:14 PM
Further north than Perthshire WP.  Fred's local,the River Don, gets them too.

Cheers

Ardbeg

And i bet they are probably a wee bit later in the year up there.
Trouble is I go off the recorded data sent to the recording schemes.
It would be really handy for the the recorders to have some samples sent through from the northern areas to update the extent of the range.
If you do manage to catch one, just put it in a small sample jar ,( urine sample jar from the chemist will do)with a bit of vodka or gin to preserve it, a date of capture and a map reference or post code. Then send it down to Stuart Crofts or Ian Wallace, or even to me and i will make sure it gets to them.
That applies to any caddis not just the grannom by the way.

I wonder if the southern chalkstreams still get the big hatches like that Malcolm? The 80's sounds like yesterday, but its 30 years back.

Part-time

Quote from: Malcolm on February 24, 2011, 01:59:17 AM
Oddly I think dry sedge imitations rise many more fish than the natural which makes me think that they often take it for something else.   

I wonder if some of the sedge patterns may be taken for terrestrials; to me a lot of the flies using deer hair remind me of clegs - could be the way I tie them though :)

deergravy

Quote from: Malcolm on February 24, 2011, 01:59:17 AM
Oddly I think dry sedge imitations rise many more fish than the natural which makes me think that they often take it for something else.   

Very true.
Deer hair sedges and sedgehog-type patterns are, by some distance, the flies I use most often on northern lochs. I've never thought of them as sedge imitators at all, even when figure-of-eighted across the surface in a rather sedge-like fashion.

Strange how trout will take a seemingly good imitation of a natural fly they usually ignore!

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