Hi all


Fishing was awful today as the cold came in - 2 measly fish, and i fished badly too......so i thought i would try to learm more about whats in my river.

Dont know why i was surprised, but i found plenty of empty caddis cases under rocks. Is this the main type of caddis? As a rookie in entomolgy terms I have only just learned to spot sedges in flight so am really at the start of this learning oddysey.

By the way, when sedges lay eggs, do they drop down to the water surface a lot ? Spotted this pattern of flight and assumed it was a segde a few weeks ago

Also, and more intriguingly, I spotted these huge bugs, seemingly almost dead in the water. However, when i picked them out, they became more lively, even defensive.

No photo.....

They have a white underbelly and were very big, easily half a finger length , with 3 brown and yellow mottled "plates of armour" for a thorax, six legs i think , and a forked tail, which it seemed to raise in defence.

It looked like an earwig, only a lot bigger. Nasty looking fellas, but seemed comotose/dying?

I think Steve thornton has made copies of them, but what are they?

One must have been 3/4 the length of my finger!

Strange day, i didnt see one fish rise..........

Thanks for the help.

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Was this it?

Stonefly?

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Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.

Possibly Fishtales.

The thoarax was more defined i think .....would that stonefly have a white underbelly ?

It was huuuuge !

__________________
Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Most likely a dragonfly larva from the description.
Anything like one of these?

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Musha rig um du rum da

I reckon they were stonefly ....a few close together.

Very big critters, is that a good sign for the health of the river, yes ?

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

welll... not on their own especially if comatose/dying!

Stoneflies score 10 on the BMWP scoring system - top marks - but judgements regarding the health of a river rely on standardised testing proceedures measuring the abundance and variety of aquatic invertebrates.

From what you've reported there are caddis and stonefly in your river and it won't take you long to have a dip with a net after disturbing the river bed in a riffle to see whether upwinged fly larvae like olives, mayfly, brook duns etc. are present. This will give you a better idea of what's about.

You only need a kids net to collect the samples, a bucket to put them in and a white plastic tray or container to observe the samples. A pair of strong reading glasses help with the detail and after that it's just a question of how interested you are in what you find before you start to identify what you're looking at. Plenty of pictures and advice in this bit of the forum.

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Musha rig um du rum da

Cheers DB, i think the Stonefly was trying to eat a shrimp ?

Either way they seemed to be more active out of water?

Have learned much more about my river ( x3 ) entomology this season and will pursue this in the close season ( any books recommended ? ), but the river certainly has sedge , olives and now stoneflies.

I wouldnt recognise one olive from another except the LDO , as its , er, large, and early season !

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.