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Information on Terrestrial Insects, flies and Fly Fishing.
Terrestrial Insects Fly Fishing They hold their bodies almost vertical in the air, which makes them appear very awkward. A further identifying mark is their two distinct sets of wings. Stone Flies Fly Fishing Stone flies drop their eggs on the water and are often observed awkwardly hovering over the pools for this purpose. The eggs hatch into nymphs and go through the same incomplete metamorphosis as do the may flies. May Flies Fly Fishing May flies, caddis flies, and stone flies are the three most impor tant aquatic insect families from the standpoint of the fly fisherman. They are important as nymphs and larva, and as adults. They have been the object of more fly patterns than any other species. Midges, while secondary to these main aquatic insect hatches, afford a lot of good fly fishing. The word "midge' 7 is all-inclusive, covering about all those small aquatics often seen hovering over the pools from early season on through until autumn. Matching them sometimes leads an angler to the very limits of practical size in fly patterns. Often it takes a tiny size 16 or 18 hook for a careful matching. When an angler turns to these small patterns in an attempt to match such tiny naturals, the effort can easily be canceled out by improper leaders. Never drop down to smaller-size flies without a corresponding drop in leader tippets. I doubt if it is good technique to fish a size 12 or smaller fly with less than a 4X or 5X leader tippet. Leaders must also be lengthened as the size of the fly is reduced. Reduction of fly size is not alone predicated on an exact matching of a tiny natural, but on delicacy of presentation also. To this end, leader butts must be as small as is consistent with a proper turnover in casting, and leader length should not be less than 12 feet. The essential factor in matching the natural aquatics of a stream is to make the matching complete. Aquatic insects are only part of the seasonal stream food of fish. In order to have a well-rounded knowledge, a careful study of terrestrial insects should also be made. Terrestrials play an increas ingly important part in all fly fishing as the streams fall and clear, from mid-season on until autumn. It was a late midJuly morning when this rainbow trout struck my black, nondescript fly solidly. I played and landed Timi after ten minutes of vicious battling which churned the pool to foam. I had used an even dozen different patterns before he came to this wet fly pattern, all 18 inches of him rolling over the fly in a classic take. The season was far enough advanced so that radical new stream conditions were becoming increasingly manifest. Terrestrial insects were making their presence felt. Fly patterns which were productive only a few short days before seemed to be losing their attraction. The fly which brought that nice 18-inch rainbow out from behind a sunken log was not a fancy creation. But in its simple design there were elements which suggested one of the most important orders of terrestrial insects. My fly had a black chenille body with a ribbing of gold tinsel. For wings, I had used black hackle tips. There was also a sparse black hackle, tied from a very soft feather. Looking at the finished creation, you might have said, "wood ant.** When I opened my trout to examine its stomach contents that was the answer. The rainbow was loaded with black-winged wood ants. Those ants had fallen into the stream during their mating flight, as that is the only time they are winged. Immediately after the mating flight they lose their wings. Five other trout followed this one in short order, but none was quite as large as my first one. Nothing had suggested a flight of ants that midJuly morning. Besides, it is their nature to emerge for their mating flights late in the evening, or during a warm summer night. The only explanation of this pattern's popularity, as I see it, is that those trout retained a memory of a feeding period at least twelve hours or more past. They took my fly because the matching touched upon that memory. I quit fishing at one o'clock to eat a belated sandwich, and did not return to the river that day. I am sure, though, that unless some thing occurred to cancel out the memory of that night flight of ants, trout would have continued to take my Black Ant offering. Just as an angler has several major aquatic species for matching, he also has many terrestrials worth consideration as the season advances. Bees and ants (Hymenoptera), flies (order Diptera, family Simuliidae), land moths (Lepidoptera), and grasshoppers (Orthop tera) are the principal terrestrials. Some of the orders actually include aquatic insects as well as terrestrials, but the more common ones belonging to the above orders are definitely terrestrial.
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