First day on the water chasing trout this year was a pretty one:
I saw maybe five Skwalas in the air, watching for them pretty closely. There were tons of small midges on the water, not getting any interest from trout, and quite a few BWOs, also not getting much interest, at least on the surface. However, a Skwala dry drew quite a few strikes, many of which I missed because I was screwing around with boat control at the same time. Two-person crews with one on the oars did better.
I identified the BWOs as Baetis tricaudatus -- not a surprise but an interesting exercise to confirm anyway. All my previous photos of BWOs were kind of flawed (messed-up wings etc) because they're so fragile, but this one made the trip to the bug photo studio in pretty good shape.
I saw maybe five Skwalas in the air, watching for them pretty closely. There were tons of small midges on the water, not getting any interest from trout, and quite a few BWOs, also not getting much interest, at least on the surface. However, a Skwala dry drew quite a few strikes, many of which I missed because I was screwing around with boat control at the same time. Two-person crews with one on the oars did better.
I identified the BWOs as Baetis tricaudatus -- not a surprise but an interesting exercise to confirm anyway. All my previous photos of BWOs were kind of flawed (messed-up wings etc) because they're so fragile, but this one made the trip to the bug photo studio in pretty good shape.
