Entomology

[chris williams]

PS - If you want to see how technical you can get, have a look at Ernest Schwiebert's two huge volumes on aquatic entomology - useful for doorstops as well!!! Actually apart from the dry scientific stuff, he has excellent drawings and some great anecdotes. But this stuff really is for more experienced guys.

I got my regular newsletter from the Natural History Museum in London, where I used to go as a small kid as my gran lived close thereby. They have 28 million specimens of insects. They reckon there are still 5 to 10 million species as yet undescribed! So don't feel too despondent if you can't identify the species, just get the main families and their habits sorted out!

The DWAF, Struik and Dave Hughes books combined should give you a good well-rounded intro.

[chris williams]

Hi Guy's

I was at a spot this weekend that I would like to fish in the summer when the water temp is up.

I scouted around in the shallows and pools and found some very small, almost white stonefly's. Obviously they will grow larger, my question is will they change colour?

Thanks.

Do you mean nymphs or adults - could these have been mayflies? Whereabouts were you fishing (i.e. Province?).

Reason I mention that is the Western cape gets one type of stonefly and we get the Perlidae (nymphs big, black backs and yellow bellies) up in the highly oxygenated water immediately below the Barrage and Vaal Dam walls, so sounds strange these were small and white? Sounds like they could possibly be the little Caenis mayfly if these were adults?

If you have a pic or can describe them more fully maybe some of the Forumers can help out a bit further?

Cheers
Chris

[AB1]

Hi Chris

These were nymphs. It may have been mayflies. They are allot smaller in real life than in books or the net pics.

I have been to this river allot and have never seen any hatches this is what is causing me the confusion at the moment.

The river is in The Eastern Cape, Aliwal north area.

[smallstreams.co.za]

They are stoneflies, and they stay light/cream. They grow to about #12 at the largest.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Hi A,

I think that if ur into tying or fishing stoneflies,stick to the specie Perlidae. They are brown or black with yellow.

Once again John Barr is your friend.I tie both his stone patterns and they work great for the Vaalriver.

G

Ps.I see u hail from OFS hence the suggestion of the Vaalriver.

[smallstreams.co.za]

This is about the darkest they get here (left)

[AB1]

I am always amazed at the wealth of information freely on offer here.

Thank you.

[chris williams]

If the pics that Mario posted are what you saw they are indeed stoneflies as Mario says (the Cape has lighter species to our Vaal jobbies). They also are often a whiteish colour for a very short while when they are moulting their skin between nymphal stages. It's amazing, put a streamside nymph next to your average regular artificials and I agree, one's often surprised how we usually fish too big artificials!

[chris williams]

I was feeling a bit 'fluey' today so I chilled out making a few flies at home and I wandered down to my locald am at sunset to get some fresh air. The airt was so close and humid with no rain for the first time in quite a few days. I can't recall having seen so many terrestrials flitting around in years.

Here's a quick guide of what I saw;

Ants
Black ants with grey fold-back wings in two sizes approx 16 and 24
Orange thorax/brown abdomen ants with grey fold-backwings approx size 16

Beetles
Dark brown oval approx size 12
Black slender approx size 10
Light beige underbody, black/beige back oval approx size 8

They seemed to go beserk from about 6 pm till about 7 pm. The bass seemed to enjoy sipping and slashing at these. I didn't have a rod but will make some further investigations. Did any of you guys see and and beetle terrestrials on the Vaal today? May possibly explain why Herman said he didn't catch on the usual mayfly/caddis suspects?

[chris williams]

I've received a bunch of papers very kindly sent by the Albany Museum on caddis flies (sedges for Ron..). There are quite a few more different families than most of us recognise lurking round our waters. In the next week or so I will attempt to abbreviate some of this into flyfisher-friendly info for tying larvae/pupae and adults.

The detail into which the aquatic biologists go is frightening - inside leg measurements etc!