Gunpowder entomology (EPTs, others)

[TurbineBlade]

Hello -- I fished the GP yesterday for 3 hours and didn't catch anything.   The turn outs where I like to park and fish were about 12" deep and sometimes higher with the plow drift, which required me to park where I really don't like to park and fish.  Oh well, beats sitting at home.  Swing, ticking nymphs on the bottom of good seams, streamers, etc. - nothing produced. So I threw the rod down and starting flipping rocks instead and came up with some great macro inverts --

 

If anyone knows these species better than I do please chime in -- I'm not a very good insect ID person beyond what I can figure out from the 'Orange' Voshnell Field Guide.  One thing I noticed is that many of the naturals were actually larger than I would have thought for this time of year (some of the mayfly nymphs were closer to my #18, which is a wet fly hook similar to most peoples' #20-22).  And the stoners, including that werid armored one, were big honkers -- up near #14-16.  Also, the length of the mayfly tails was quite a bit longer than I generall tie -- so lesson learned!  I guess I need to tie those RS2s with the "suck" fibbet tails. 

 

We ended up having a great time out there -- some common merganzers landed in front of where we were sampling inverts.  They probably did a much better job fishing than I did. 

 

Gene

[Matthew Longley]

Very cool!  I was there too, and had the same luck.  Of course I left my splitshot in the basement, so I devoted the trip to swinging streamers, something I need to get more comfortable with anyway.  I didn't even SEE a fish.  Usually I can spot a good amount in a few usual spots there, but this time nothing.  Got the chance to meet Beth, who I'm sure was a bit weirded out that I knew her name, but we had a nice chat.  Tried to catch up with you to say hi when I left but you guys were downstream at that point.

[Dave Marcus]

Matt I was there as well I think I lent you my forceps. I also go skunked that day. The only fish I saw was a dead ~12 inch brown on the bottom of the stream. It was almost completely white except for it's red spots. Instead of turning over rocks I just sat and looked around in the woods. You can see so much wildlife in the winter with all the leaves gone. I saw a herd of about 20 deer at one point I just watched them for 30 minutes.

Tons of blue birds and cardinals as well as other small song birds I couldn't identify, a couple raccoons, and one great blue heron. Not a great day of fishing productivity, but a beautiful time to be out in the woods with a foot of fresh snow on the ground.

 I was getting pretty frustrated picking all the slime off my nymphs every other cast and not seeing (or even spooking) other fish. It was great to meet you and I'm heartened to hear it was a slow for others as well.

David

[TurbineBlade]

Hi Matt -- Beth said she ran into a friendly tpfr guy, I'll make a mental link (the non-ESP kind) to you on the board here. ;)  

I did see a sucker at one point, but that's it.  They're fun to catch with a single corn kernel, but obviously not when it's illegal and such -- I mean on other waters.  They "fork" 'em during gigging season too over in Missouri.  

And yeah, I got a lot of that crud on my nymphs as well.  It was more mustardy, light-olive than the darker stuff I get on the Jackson.  

Gene

[tperkins]

That is most likely Didymo that you are talking about. It grows thick during the colder weather and in the spring starts break apart. It is a huge pain! Don't forget to disinfect and dry your gear before fishing another river system to prevent the spread! 

[Matthew Longley]

Ah yes, Dave I suspected you might be TPFR but didn't ask.  Thanks for the forceps!  On a related note, if anyone heads out to ice fish Lake Habeeb keep an eye out for a pair of Orvis forceps...

[Parker]

I love looking under rocks to see what the fish are eating. Last time I was at the Gunpowder, I kicked over some rocks and use my mesh net as a seine. I was surprised at how many big cranefly nymphs I found (about the width of a pencil and an inch long). I would imagine they are quite the treat for a hungry trout.

 

On Monday, February 17, 2014 5:13:36 AM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote: