What are these bugs?

[afishinado]

If little black soneflies hatched in June rather than in the winter, they would be a considered a "major" hatch. But the fish in the cold winter water are very lethargic for the most part, and they are often ignored.

I've had some great days fishing SF dries. Ever run into a yellow or green sallie hatch in the early summer?

 

[FlySwatter]

afish,

Yep. I tie & fish red butt yellow sallies (kind of a modified tent wing caddis), a good prospecting fly from mid May through at least mid July on little moutain streams. During a good sally hatch, they're killer! I've seen trout jump out of the water after the yellow sallies.

I've tried tying lime (chartreuse) sallies but haven't had success fishing them.

 

[afishinado]

Me too FlySwatter! I remember a 50+ fish day on Fishing Creek (Columbia County) when the fish were ON yellow sallies (stones). After a while of catching I noticed some of the fish were fighting like wimps. I realized by recognizing some of the fish I landed that I was actually catching the same fish over again!

Most times it is yellow sallies, but I've run into the bright green ones once in a while. Great fun!

 

[jayL]

Both the yellows and limes are present in force on a bunch of berks county streams.

 

[BelAirSteve]

We have those little black stoneflies on the Gunpowder as late (or as early as) February. I have pictures of them crawling on the snow and ice. I have never tried to fish them, but I do have some tiny little black stonefly nymphs that I might try this year.

 

[troutslammer]

stoneflys live most of their life cycle under a rock in the stream or on land , they like colder water in the fall because cold water holds more oxygen , stoeflys breathe through their gills , they need oxygen , they are also found in fast water , but under rocks , occasionally they get swept into the current

 

[flybop]

The little black stone flies emerge, crawl out of the water, and crawl or fly into streamside vegatation to mate. On warm afternoons the females fly out over the water to lay or drop their egg sacks. The egg laying flights can sometimes involve enough bugs to locally turn the fish on to them. The emergence very often does not cause any surface action.

There are exceptions to this though. My old home stream in Pa has a very heavy little black stone fly emergence in late winter. This is the only place that I have personally seen the stoneflies emerging mid stream. We tied an emerging black stone fly pattern on small swimming nymph hooks that produced well during the day before the egg laying flights.

This stream has the heaviest emergence that I have ever seen of these little blacks. In fact, the largest brown that I have caught came to a stone fly dry there one March afternoon. The bigger stoneflies, salmon and goldens, crawl out to molt often at night.Also, it is very common to see these little blacks crawling around in the snow on warm, sunny winter days.

 

[MKern]

I use them all of the time as a nymph.

I want to add something to the being swept away by the current thing.

All aquatic insects, including stoneflys, partake in "causual drift." This is when a nymph or larva volluntarily releases from its holding location to be carried by the current and attach on rocks or vegitation down stream. They do this to find new food sources and to mix the gene pool up a little. This is when fish eat them, although some do get swept away.

This is why during a hatch, most of the adults fly upstream. they are dropping their eggs off near where they were dropped off -- like salmon.

However, a small percentage of the population is programmed to explore. these are the adults that fly all over the place and are the ones people see on their windows, even though they are miles from any stream. They do this to discover new water and hopefully mix up genes in these locals, or even start new populations.

 

[sundrunk]

There is nothing like a good stonefly event after a long Winter season...The Gunpowder has a decent stonefly population that gets active as early as right now...Timing is every thing if you want to fish stonefly's dry..Give me a late Feb early March day with air temps in the fiftys, and I'm on the water...Those days where the sun shines well, with a cloudy mix are the best imo..And like others have stated, big trout rise on the egg-layers...It's a wonderful early season bug to fish over..And not a lot of anglers are on to it, well until now..

 

[osprey]

govtmule...........i say they will survive in less ideal water , than mayflies. I use my own experience on Big Spring when it was almost devoid of insects from the hatchery pollution , there was still a good hatch of stoneflies in the spring that would bring em up. If you wanna see something funny go to the susk in the early spring and watch the seagulls feeding on them , the fish don't seem to bother with them yet , my guess is it's too cold yet , the gulls chase them around in circles like they are drunk.