I've finally managed to make time to update
my trout fishing site again with all the new pictures from this summer. Probably won't be able to do a whole lot on it now until at least Christmas since classes are keeping me really busy, but I wanted to get the summer stuff up before it got too late. Computer problems kept me from doing this for quite a while and I actually ended up losing about 6 weeks of prime hatch time critter photos--
argh! But I've finally got some good ones online from the latter half of this summer. Here are a few of my favorites shrunk to forum size:
This is a male
Hexagenia atrocaudata spinner from northwest Wisconsin. These really big guys come out in the evening around the same time as the more prolific
Ephoron hatch. They aren't as common as their superhatch cousin, the infamous
Hexagenia limbata, but they're still hard to miss when the highly animated spinner flight sends one zooming at your face. (
Full-size pictures here.)
Here are the shucks from a couple of
Isonychia mayflies that emerged in early September on the Beaverkill. Many
Isonychia flies crawl out onto rocks to emerge stonefly-style rather than popping out on the surface. The behavior is dependent on the species, and sometimes even the strain within the species. If you check out the other pictures of
Isonychia duns I've taken, you'll notice they're not purple. That seems sort of obvious, but you wouldn't know it from the selection in some fly shops. Some tiers seem to go more by the common name (in this case, "Mahogany Dun") than by what the critter actually looks like. All the live
Isonychia duns I've seen range from grayish brown to a deep brown with a very slight reddish tint. Not Barney-the-dinosaur purple. (
Full-size pictures here.)
Pretttttyyyyyy! As great as it would have taste to make this fellow into a meal, quickly I released him and made him into a
desktop background instead.
I still haven't devised a good way to handle
caddisflies like this yet for photography, but once in a while one of the pictures turns out alright. These critters are much more hyper and prone to scurrying than mayflies, and they're much harder to hold to photograph in a natural fish's-eye position. I've tried refidgeration and various other methods to get them to behave but haven't come up with anything great yet. It's something I'll work on next summer probably. (
Full-size pictures here.)
Here's a male
Epeorus dun from an early September evening hatch on the Beaverkill. Even though these guys emerged pretty sporadically they do ride the water for quite a while so they got some trout going. In the fly shops they seem to talk about these guys as sulphurs. I'd call them cream cahills. Whatever. I like the Latin names so much better... one critter, one name. One name, one critter. (
Full-sized pictures here.)
Here's a picture of a northwoods beast of legend, the rare and mysterious
Whitetail Moose. It's almost identical to a Whitetail Deer, except it doesn't realize that sticking your head all the way underwater to graze is something for moose (meese? mooses?) to do, not deer. This is one of a whole bunch of
wildlife and
scenery pictures I've added. (
Full-sized picture here.)
Enjoy.
