[Michael Buchan]

From April onwards ive decided to concentrate on river trouting so when i came accross the underskirt from my wifes wedding dress in the wardrobe last week i thought it might make a good kick net as it had really fine mesh.  I attahced a couple rods to each side and my DIY kick net was made.

It might not look much.



Decided to try it out on the Deveron on Saturday.  As the river was 3 ft higher than normal there was only one place i could get in and find some gravel.  The area of gravel i used the net on i suspect would normally be out of the water at normal height so i was really surprised and fascinated at the results of my first netting

Catch from first dip



Some of the nymphs from the first dip



One of the Caddis flies brown back with a pale underbelly



A mayfly of some sort three tails really flat and quite wide were tons of these in various sizes.  Any idea what these would hatch into?


Think was a small mayfly think it might be a baetis nymph couldn’t half move



Freshwater shrimp pale yellow colour


Can someone tell me what the different species are?

Really interesting and defiantly something i want to learn more about wish i got a stonefly of some sort. 
I have Matching the Hatch by Pat Oreilly but would like to read up some more any suggestions?

Thanks
Michael

[Mike Barrio]

I'm sure there must be some type of law against using your wife's frilly underwear in a river system with runs of migratory fish!

Great photos, it is going to be an interesting thread this one ............

Best wishes
Mike

[Iain Goolager]

Really piddled off lost my post and couldn't retrieve it
One serious Seinne net there Michael

Hydropsyche - 2 curled up in 3rd photo

large nymph in 4th photo probably another but I'd need to see a clearer picture and also the 'but end' to discount a Rhyac.

Hepatagenids? MB, False MB, those Olives (that I can never remember) that have similar stone clinger nymphs. How long before hatching does a nymph darken? Does the MB nymph have a black mark on their legs or is it just the adults? No serious barring or mottling so discounts other species? It's all questions I'm afraid.

Gamarus in the last photo - type? I don't know 

Photo of agile darter is blurred - LDO?

Nymph at 4 O Clock in 3rd photo apperaed at first glance as a small Dragonfly with the shape of the abdomen and head but I see it has 3 tails.

Looking forward to the replies from the well informed.

Will definitely be taking some samples this season.



I blame the fact that a GRHE & PTN can represent almost all of our river nymphs so we've taken little time to concern ourselves with the specifics of what we are mimicking.

Excellent post Michael

Iain

[paavo]

This remind me when I started flyfishing and we had study circles of incects on the Fly Fishing Association I was member of. But that was ages ago.

On the 3:e pics. I think there’s 3 Heptagenia sulphurea or fuscugrisea nymphs, wide and flat, with long tail, you might call them Yellow may and Brown May spinner. 1 Siphlonurus, shorts tail at 9 o Clock. 3 or 2 caddis larva.
Last pics. Gamarus on top and Heptagenia on left and Siphlonurus, short tail, on the right? 

Good thread Michael. 
//Harri

[bruce]

That was a brilliant idea. does it garanttee divorce

[Barry Robertson]

Veru intresting reading guys, Bruce the only way to gaurantee divorce is to fish 5 times a week 

[Michael Buchan]

Iain Harri thanks for the info.  Interesting subject noticed on the net a couple of entomology surveys so might take part in something like this to brush up on species identification etc also makes a good excuse to get on the river more often.

Here is a 5 second video i took of the nymphs its hardly oscar worthy but shows the speed of some of them.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mbuchan1979?feature=mhw5#p/a/u/1/xfHrZL4k58c

Baz Fishing 5 times a week divorce doesn’t sound to bad 

[Richard Tong]

I was asked by a Forum member what I thought some of these were. Firstly,I am like you guys-a keen amateur and absolutely no more. I don't go rooting about, kick sampling all over the place and IDing nymphs. Although I have kick sampled it is not something I do by routine-maybe should do more!

Regarding the upwings I can ID a lot of the common duns no problem but nymphs are a different matter beyond knowing that they are agile darters/stoneclingers etc. Really you need scientific keys to ID them properly

The caddis I would say in the 3rd shot are 2 x Hydros together and bottom left looks more like a Rhyac though difficult to tell. If I were to stick my neck out regarding the stoneclingers in the same shot I would guess that the one below the Hydros may be an Olive Upright as I can just see the dark blotch on the femurs when I look closely. Colour is the least feature that people use when ID nymphs but I would guess that a March Brown nymph would be browner and more mottled in appearance. Both the MB and OU have flat stoneclinger type nymphs and both duns have a dark blotch on the femur.

Anyway sent this thread to Oliver Edwards and regarding the stoneclingers this is what he said "Stoneclingers? wouldn't even like to guess, no one should...almost a 50/50 chance of being completely wrong. All I can say with some certainty....they weren't ripe, wing buds not yet fully formed.......O."

If he doesn't know then we should not feel too bad!

Richard

[Iain Goolager]

Thanks Richard,
I don't feel such a tw** now 

Iain

[clark]

Hey guys  i've got a question for you  where would be the best places to carry out kick sampling on the don ??? i need this info for a biology project which am going to be doing the fieldwork for over the easter holidays.

cheers, calum

[Iain Goolager]

Callum when I was doing Biology projects at your age they too involved petticoats down at the river.

Anywhere you can easily acces the river - try fastish rocky water and get some samples from the muddier slower parts too - there's critters 'a'roads.

Maybe you could post your project once complete
Iain

[Paul Rankine]

HI Iain et al,
                       Ok, here is one for everyone .
 
I can see the benefit obviously of knowing what is there in abundance and ,if a particular species is hatching and being fed on so much the better.

But does it really matter all that much that we can't identify a particular nymph down to species level though ?

Most of the time is it not enough to imitate a Group , Heptagenids all look pretty much alike after all , Ephemeroptera nymphs pretty distinctive imitative features too ?

It's the old exact  imitation against general impression thing.

Interested in people's views.

Paul.

[Barry Robertson]

General impression has served me well 

[Jim Eddie]

If its wee and black... thats good enough for me  except hwen its big and black that is 

 

Jim

[Irvine Ross]

But does it really matter all that much that we can't identify a particular nymph down to species level though ?

No, I don't think so. As long as the general shape size and colour is right that is all you need for nymphs.

You have to have a fair idea of what is in the river or loch you are fishing so you know what to imitate and that is what the kick sampling tells you. It would be a bit pointless fishing a stone-clinger imitation in a river that has few or none of the real insect.

My tuppenceworth.

Irvine