[Iain Cameron]

With the River Don brown and swollen yesterday, I resorted to watching insects copulating...
There were some Hawthorns  - first I've seen this year.

Can anyone help ID this cheeky pair? They were large, well over 10mm long, probably 12-15. Very distinctive colour.
I really must get a better book on insect ID - I've got the Collins Waterside Wildlife guide, but it's both too detailed and too vague.

I'm thinking it's a False March Brown pair - Ecdyonurus venosus - look about right??



male. or female, frankly I dunno...




the other one...

[Rob Brownfield]

Hawethorns galore on my walk around the AECC business park this lunchtime, hundreds of them!

Worth us all recording sightings of any river fly here http://www.riverflies.org/ to help them build a picture of whats going on on our rivers.

As for the fly..I think you are right,,,,, but I would use a silver and blue J11 Rapala to represent it

[Sandy Nelson]

Iain

They look like the Large Brook Dun Spinners, the female has kept more of her colour, but the male is much darker.
Not many picture of the spinners about so its an educated guess based on descriptions and knowing what is about at the moment.

Sandy

[Iain Cameron]

Iain

They look like the Large Brook Dun Spinners, the female has kept more of her colour, but the male is much darker.

I suspect you're right - there's a pic here of the male & female - the female is the one slathered in fake tan, it seems, which will help me tell them apart: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25025458@N03/5671336609

[Iain Goolager]

LBD imagos' I'd go with that. That yellow is very destinctive on the leading edge of the wing, perhaps a positive help to spinner identification, nice pictures. 

Photographing a 'couple' during the act of copulation though..... whatever next.

Iain

[Iain Cameron]

Photographing a 'couple' during the act of copulation though..... whatever next.

... lend me your Go Pro...

[Iain Goolager]

 

[Allan Liddle]

Jesus you'll be giving the male a false mustache and shirtless boiler suit next before scripting in 'I've come to fix your washing machine', in a dodgy 1970's Scandanavian accent.

Iain you've too much time on yer hands, just concentrate on looking fur fish next time. 

BTW some form of Olive Imago and of no real interest to me until the female ends up back on the water all spreadeagled and spent (oops that dosen't sound right at all in the overall context of this post  )

[Iain Cameron]

LBD imagos' I'd go with that. That yellow is very destinctive on the leading edge of the wing, perhaps a positive help to spinner identification, nice pictures. 

thanks Goo & Sandy for the ID. I found this great wee guide for the Clyde - I like it because it features only bugs are typical to that stream - not sure how accurate it is, but looks OK to my untrained eye.
http://www.palewatery.com/images/clydebuglife.pdf

Ach, who am I kidding, i only ever use about two or three flies in any case, so does it matter.... nope... but I do like to know what's crawling about

[Sandy Nelson]

Ach, who am I kidding, i only ever use about two or three flies in any case, so does it matter.... nope... but I do like to know what's crawling about

Couldn't agree more but it is fun trying catch them just to find out.
I might even get round to that rationalized flybox this winter.

Maybe if we get enough photos of the flies this year we could put a small guide together in the Don forum.
Might be a nice thing to have

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

So the next question has to be, do we use a specific imitation or do we pick something that "sort of looks like it"?

I am a Sort of looks like it sort of person as life is too short to be tying exact replicas of every fly you are likely to come across.

I have lots of drys all dressed with various shades of olive, yellow or brown, with a few grey or black ones thrown in, all non descript, all there to roughly imitate whats coming off.

[Hamish Young]

...... all there to roughly imitate whats coming off.

Does that work for Pike ??? ???

But seriously folks...... yup, the few dries I fish these days with are rough representations of what's hanging around. Simples.
If they want it, they'll have it.

H

[Allan Liddle]

Yup, presentation equally as important than pattern as long as there's a rough impression on the flee the troot will have it.  Well mostly.