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Entymology For Anglers |
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By Jim Roberts "Hey George, what do you think we ought to use here?" bellowed Al as he fed his brightly colored line through the guides on his rod. George picked up several rocks and twigs taking note of the insect life clinging to them. "I'm not really sure, there are quite a few different types of bugs in the water, but I don't have the foggiest idea what they will look like when they hatch. That's the only thing wrong about going somewhere new, you never know what flies are going to work." "Well," said Al, "I am going to tie on a Royal Wulff and see what happens." "Yea, it is always a good way to start, with something familiar I mean," claimed George as he tied on a renegade and started up the stream. This scene is one which happens very often, but needs not, if the proper tools and techniques are implemented to identify the food organisms of the trout. It seems that a lot of anglers are not able to properly interprete insect life so they can select the proper imitation. Let's face it, we want to get down to some serious fishing and not spend precious time mucking around looking at a bunch of dumb bugs. Unfortunately, one cannot always count on the local flyshop's advice on fly selection for a specific stream because of the constantly changing conditions most streams go through. And, remember the last vacation you went on and found that no one could give you any information on the lakes or streams that you planned to fish? These are just a few of the instances when the ability to translate insect life into the proper imitations will pay big dividends in number of fish caught. Having been in both situations more than once, I know how frustrating it can be to go out and find that your fly boxes are lacking the proper imitations. However, all this can be eliminated by the proper identification of the food organisms in the specific water you intend to fish. The turn around came for me, first of all, in attitude. I had to accept the fact that my flies had to imitate the natural food of the fish where I planned to be, and, I had to do more than go out and cast flies. I had to expend an honest effort toward understanding what the fish were probably feeding on, and for that to be done properly I had to spend some quality time identifying the insects in the area that I planned to fish. After seeing what needed to be done, the hardest part was to actually go out and practice what I had convinced myself would make all the difference in the world. The best thing to do is to make insect collection a part of your fishing routine. In fact, I usually suit up, put my rod and reel together and then check the water to see what the fish are feeding on before I even consider what fly to use. Hopefully, this article will show what tools are needed for collecting and identifying aquatic and air-born insects, and, how to use that information to pick the correct fly pattern. A few tools are needed to make the collection process profitable. First of all, you need a way of collecting the food organisms from their environment. Insect seines can be made at little expense or bought at flyfishing shops. Most are made simply by taking a large patch of nylon screen and attaching two dowels to each end so that the screen can be stretched across the water to trap dislodged organisms. One disadvantage of this type of net is that it can not be affectively used to collect flying insects. One other approach is to go to a local pet store that specializes in fish and take a look at the large selection of fish nets. Such nets can be used to collect both aquatic and air-born organisms and most are both durable and inexpensive. No matter which way seems best, you must have an effective way to collect the kinds of organisms that may live in or come in to contact with the fish's habitat. Secondly, one needs to have an effective and convenient way of viewing the organisms. Normally I carry a medium sized petri dish bottom to view the organisms at stream or lake side, but any small glass dish will work. Make sure that you have enough water in the dish to float the insects. There are two reasons for doing this. First, I noticed that if the organisms are aquatic I could see with much detail the waving gills and moving body parts tht would have gone undetected if viewed out of water. Secondly, the natural color of the organism is better understood if viewed through the water. Besides a small glass or petri dish, I have found glass vials to be useful in preserving organisms for further study and identification. Vials come in a myriad of sizes and shapes. When buying them, predict the sizes of the ogranisms; that you might be collecting. It is disappointing when you find that the stonefly nymph you just found will not fit into the vial you brought. Now that you have the little devils where you can see them, you may find that some details are not visible clearly to the unaided eye. Here a small magnifying glass does the job wonderfully. The most versatile are those which offer more than one magnification by the use of more than one lens at a time. Some subtile details are very important in understanding what a specific organism is and in the case of some larva and nymphs, what they may look and act like as emergers and adults. There are two other miscellaneous items that can be of great use in identifying the organisms that trout are taking once one is caught. First, a stomach pump can be used to identify exactly what the fish are eating. They do not harm the fish if used with care and most fish can be released with a minimum of distress and time out of the water. However, the pump is ony good if you manage to catch a fish. Secondly, a monocular or set of compact binoculars can be used to watch what a rising fish is feeding on if it is impossible to collect organisms in the area where the fish is feeding. The monocular or binoculars can tell you whether the fish are taking adults off the surface, or emergers just under the surface. One obvious drawback is that they can not show what type of emergers or nymphs are being taken. The last necessary tool is one which can be used to actually identify what the insects are and in most instances, I even show the effective imitation of the insects in question. And that means buying a good book on angling entomology. Some give information concerning all types of possible organisms that fish may find tantalizing, such as Naturals, by Gary Borger and What the trout said, by Datus Proper. Some treat specific types of organisms in great detail, such as, Caddis flies, by Gary LaFontaine or Hatches II, by Caucci and Nastasi. The best approach is to find a good general account of aquatic organisms and use it to its fullest before going on to the more specific accounts of certain organisms. Most of these accounts will also show the complete life cycle of the food organisms so that you can predict what imitations will be handy if a hatch takes place. Besides books aimed at a general account of entomology for the angler, specific information about local varieties of trout food organisms can be found in local university libraries. Particularly, universities with graduate programs in biology, zoology, and entymology. These schools often catalog the dissertations of past graduate students with the normal contents of the library. A glance at the card catalog should show whether any work has been done on orgnisms that live in and around the stream or lake you are interested in. So, with the tools described above, the angler should be more than prepared to identify most of the food organisms any given body of water holds. Again it seems proper to re-emphasize that act of going out into the field and actually using these tools to understand the relevant food organisms. So, where are the best places to start looking for insects and other creatures that may become a meal for fish. This depends wholly on where the fish seem to be most active. If there are no visible rises then the fish must be taking something under the water. Thus, you should use your net to gather organisms under the surface and on the bottom. To do so properly, position yourself up stream from your net and with it held directly down stream, agitate the bottom so that most of the loosened dirt and debris flows through your net. After most of the debris has passed through the net lift it from the water and watch for wiggling bugs. It usually takes them a few seconds to show signs of life after being disturbed from their safe perches, so be patient. After taking a quick glance at the population of your net, decide which insect type makes up the highest percentage of the population. Place the insects in the petri dish and stow the net. Notice the natural movements of the specimens in the shallow water and the action of the gills and legs as they scurry around the dish. If the organisms are small and the details subtle, use the magnifier to view the organism in all its detail. Faint differences in color and or body plan can make or break you in selecting or creating the correct imitation. This is also a good time to collect organisms that you are not familiar with. Place the organism in a vial and then fill it with rubbing alcohol. This will keep the specimen from deterioration and eases the chore of cleaning the vials for future use. Take several samples from varying areas of the stream or lake where you plan to fish. It seems that different types of organisms prefer different environments so take samples from several different locations to make sure you have an adequate sample. If the fish are active on or near the surface, hold your net in the same general area of the water. Here the goal is to capture any adults or emergers that the fish may be actively feeding on. Also, now is a good time to use the monocular or binoculars to observe closely what the fish may be taking. Look in the air above the stream for airborne insects that may be landing on the water to oviposit or that are driven to the water from winds or from exhaustion. Observe the fish itself as it rises and retreats to safer ground. Normally trout will pursue an emerger more forcefully and can often be observed leaping and porpoising to capture the vulnerable insect before it breaks loose of its aquatic nursery. It is very difficult to observe the action of the emerging insects. First of all, much of the action which the trout key in on is a product of the streams current against the body of the insect. The mayfly genus Ephemerella (Pale Morning Duns, Western Green Drakes), for instance, shed the nymphal shuck before they reach the surface of the water. Thus, the fully developed adult, with its appendages swept back, swims to the surface. No matter how sophisticated the observer is, he cannot view the specific details of the natural's body as it ascends through the current. If you observe rising fish, but cannot find any specific aquatic organism that they may be taking, walk over to the bank and shake some of the bushes or limbs. You may find that either the insects are resting on the limbs until the mating flights mysteriously begin or that terrestrials (ants, beetles, or grasshoppers) are active and are being dislodged by wind or simply fly out over the water and are forced down because of wind or fatigue. You may want to be ready with a net so that you can view the insect and properly identify it. Many times this tactic has saved the day for me, so give it a try the next time you run into a tough situation. Having set out the basic methods of collecting and observing aquatic organisms, the next step is to translate those observations into proper fly selection. Five basic characteristics are important for a fly to imitate the natural in such a way that trout will be fooled into taking them. They are: size, shape, color, action, and water type. The actual characteristics are probably less problematic than the order. Some fly tyers begin the list with action and end it with color. I do not intend to rank them according to relative importance and feel that all the characteristics are equally important. First let's talk about size. The easiest way of matching the size is to measure the natural by some method and then tie or buy the imitation to match. Many fishermen attempt to determine the proper fly size by eye. Though this may be accurate enough for the experienced angler, most of us are not adept at determinig the size of an insect without actually measuring it. Sometimes the insects, though of the same kind, may differ in size. For instance, during many mayfly hatches, duns may range between 3 different hook sizes. The trout can become quite selective and take only one size exclusively. If you see several sizes of insects, you may have to experiment with different sized imitations. The second characteristic that should be taken into account when tying to determine the proper fly pattern is that of shape. Again, our cue is taken from the natural. For instance, an imitation of the Green Drake nymph should represent the flat oval shape of the natural. On the other hand, the nymph of the Brown Drake is long and evenly tapered and the imitation of it should be long and slender since the natural is of that shape. One of the common mistakes made in dressing mayfly duns and spinners is that the bodies are made much too thick. If one looks carefully at the natural, the bodies are slender and evenly tapered. So, when either tying your own flies or selecting flies at a shop, look at the shape and decide if they correctly imitate the shape of the natural. The third characteristic that an imitation ought to represent is the color of the natural. Of all the characteristics artificial flies are intended to imitate, this is probably the easiest to manipulate and also the easiest to get wrong. First of all, remember that the fish normally see the bottom of adult insects and that color is important. Secondly, remember that the material you use to dub the body of the fly may become darker when wet. Sometimes the difference in shade is enough to cause the fish to reject an otherwise proper imitation. Lastly, view the insects coloration through a magnifying glass so that subtle shades are not overlooked. Many times the color of an insect becomes more complex when viewed under magnification. Such a close observation is important because the trout views its food very closely and keys in on some very subtle yet complex colors. The fourth characteristic is that of behavior. Of all the characteristics this is the least considered and probably the least understood. The difficulty in imparting the correct action to a fly results from the fact that it is hard to understand what the trout sees in a specific insect's behavior that makes it decide to take it as food. All that we can possibly do is imitate the action we see in the natural ogranisms and alter that behavior as is necessary to catch trout. There are times, however, when you seem to be doing everything correctly, but the fish do not take the artifical. At this time the trout are possibly observing some characteristic which is simply imperceptible to humans. The last consideration in choosing the correct fly pattern is not based on any enthymological consideration, but on the type of water that the imitation is intended to be fished in. Pattern type is less a consideration, though not unimportant, for nymphs and emergers, while it is an important consideration when trying to imitate some adult through the use of a dry fly. The flyfisher must understand.the relation between water condition and realism:
The actual ability to use realistic fly patterns in less than smooth water will depend partly on your ability to delicately place the fly on the water and produce a drag-free float. However, there are some patterns, especially certain no-hackle patterns, that are only good on very smooth and quiet water. On the other hand, very bushy flies will not adequately imitate the clearly visible natural insect on very smooth and quiet water. So, there is an important tradeoff between floatability and adequate representation of the natural insect, with the water conditions dictating the amount of realism instilled in the imitation. The two main sources of information for understanding a fish's food are personal observation and entymological books. If used conjunctively, these two sources should allow you to catch even the most stubborn trout. It may seem that most of what I have said is uselessly general. However, at this point, the details must be filled in by the angler who actually goes out and uses the techniques presented to determine the correct patterns for a specific stretch of water. Entymology, as a science, is not complete, especially when it comes to aquatic insects. More times than not, flyfishers who seriously undertake to understand the insects in the trout' s world are breaking new ground in the identification and understanding of insects because of the the specific locale being observed and studied. So, get out there and give the techniques and tools I have described an honest try. They will help you become a more consistently successful angler and help you understand some of the other inbabitants of that precious habitat in which the trout lives. |
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