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Name that Bug

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Hawkeye 
#1 ·
About 3 weeks ago I was fishing a Pond in Plymouth, MA it was pretty chilly out and I was paddling around in the yak when all of a sudden I am surrounded by these insects. First of all I'm suprised that bugs are hatching in the weather but I guess that was just my own misconception about insect hatches only occuring in warmer weather. Anyway these things are pretty meaty about a 1/2 inch long, gray and fuzzy with black stripes. Any guesses?:confused:
 
#2 ·
The insects that you are seeing are Midges.That is about all that will be hatching this time of year in a pond.In the fall a griffith's gnat should do the trick.In the spring an emerger will take more fish.Chironomidae [spelling?] hatches are prolific on a warm cloudy day in the fall.
Domenic
 
#4 ·
The way I understand it is both lakes and streams have hatches of midges which are all chronomids. The hatches in rivers are usually of the smaller variety than what you would get in a lake. In lakes where they are found they can make up to 90% of a trouts diet.

Eastern Washington and BC lakes are well known for at times prolific hatches of these insects and guys who imitate these hatches have there own unique way of fishing. Most people think it is mind numbing by I respect it for its effectiveness.

Here is an article about it:

http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/protalk/chan/confession.phtml


Basically you fish an indicator on a long leader and adjust the depth of the fly as you fish until you find the right depth. The retrieve is a painfully slow hand twist(the mantra is you can always slow it down). It can sometimes take 20 minutes to retrieve a 60 ft cast.

Sounds fun right? Well it can be. Once you get dialed into the right depth and retrieve you can just nail fish after fish. I have seen guys talk 30 fish right next to me while I get skunked.

Needless to say I have had some luck with this technique but my patience is usually too short and I lose interested.

However if you can stare at an indicator for 10 hours a day it just may be the method for you.

-sean
 
#5 · (Edited)
That cold water hatch story reminds me of the March Brown (R. Haarupi) hatches which occur in the early spring on the rocky streams and rivers of the UK. For several seasons each April we took a week on the Teviot, a tributory of the Tweed to fish primarily for Sea run Brown Trout and Grayling. April in Scotland can be quite cold but the best hatches would occur when the wind started to howl down from the North. The colder it got and the harder it blew, the more intense the hatch would become and the erstwhile lifeless river would boil with rising trout - some of a good size to around three pounds. As the wind dropped and the temperature started to rise, the hatch would die off and the trout would simply disappear.

Midges can certainly get big. In Eire they have a large black midge called the Duck Fly - up to 1 inch in length - which is responsible for some spectacular rises on the western lakes.
 
#6 ·
Once again I learn something new on the board. Big midges - still sounds like an oxymoron to me.

I've tried that painfully slow fishing for Lahotian cutthroat on Soap lake in Washington with the only success being the exercise I got kicking my float tube around. I don't think I was fishing nearly slow enough.
 
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