Gadgers and Stoneflies.

[piscatus absentis]

Thousands of these beasties were crawling out of the Tweed and hatching today.  They were everywhere except in the water.  Some of them were enormous - up to an inch long.

The wagtails love them but very few took flight so the sand martins had to be happy with smaller stuff.  They look very clumsy in flight with the four wings seemingly uncoordinated.

Edit.

I played around a bit with the picture Stonefly 2.  The new version show some more detail.

[Black-Don]

Good pictures P.A., It's finally solved the mystery, for me anyway, of what a Gadger actually looks like. Any idea how they came to be called Gadger's ?

[Malcolm]

Have you ever seen a trout taking these big adults PA. I was watching them in their dozens today - and not a single trout rose to them.

[haresear]

Have you ever seen a trout taking these big adults PA. I was watching them in their dozens today - and not a single trout rose to them.

I saw a trout take one today for the first time ever. It didn't just take it - it demolished it. The fish was a big one about 4lb at a guess and had taken an olive and a march brown before the stonefly drifted over just a couple of feet from the near bank. It got hammered by the fish.

My first cast was too close to the fish I think and it never rose again. I know where he lives though :

Alex

[Wildfisher]

I had a stroll down the Feugh with the rod yesterday. I say stroll as  I never even cast a line.  It quite cold in the  wind, but with  bright sun. No upwinged flies at all but loads of small stoneflies. Not a fish moved to them. I have seen fish on the Don take the small stoneflies, but never the big stoneflies.

[Fishtales]

I don't want to disillusion you Bob, but the first picture is a male and the other three are female, all adults.

This is a gadger, creeper or nymph whichever you want to call it.

You will notice the lack of wings.

[Black-Don]

I don't want to disillusion you Bob, but the first picture is a male and the other three are female, all adults.

Is this significant ? Are only the females called Gadgers ?

This is a gadger, creeper or nymph whichever you want to call it.

You will notice the lack of wings.

I don't understand, as soon as the wings start to show do they cease to become nymphs ? How long does the metamorphosis from nymph to emerger/adult take ?

Has anyone got a photo of an emerger, do stoneflies crawl onto stones to metamorphosise or do they do it in the water ?

My knowledge of entomology is sadly lacking  :oops:

[Fishtales]

The gadger or nymph crawls out of the water and the adult breaks out of the back just as upwings do except on dry land, if you look on stones near the water you will see the empty skins, they don't have wings. Most of the adult males have those short wings as in picture one and the females have the long wings as in the other pictures. The adults spend most of their time crawling about through the bankside vegetation. They only live for a few weeks and the females return to the water to lay their eggs and then die, the males die on dry land unless they fall in

[Black-Don]

What's the difference between entomology and etymology ?  :?

I thought gadger maybe came from the term gadgie as defined in the urban dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gadgie or here http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gadgie  :lol:

But can't see how it relates to stonefly nymphs  :?

[Black-Don]

This is getting complicated  :?

I've heard the word shearn before which I think is a noun therefor shearney would be the comparative of the adjective. 

We used to have a rope swing in a field where there were coo's and my mother forbade that I use it as we would sometimes come home covered in shearn. I suppose you could've said our clothes were a bit shearney by the time we came home. Ooh 'ar.  :lol: