I always carry a little seining net in my vest and take samples from time-to-time. Looking at the insects in the river always influence my tying. I like simple impressionistic patterns and there is no better way to do that than by first hand observation. Seining nets are easy to make some nylon screen and dowels from your local or big box hardware store. Just glue staple or sew the screen to the dowels and roll it up and put it in your vest.
Here are some shots and a video clip of a emerging Caddis pupa. You notice straight away the bright green abdomen the dark wing buds in the thorax and the light translucent head, not to mention the sparkle throughout. You can see why Lafontaine's Sparkle Pupa Emerger works so well.
Emerging Caddis Pupa
Emerging Caddis Pupa side view.
Very nice video. What caught my eye, though, were the scuds swimming past the pupa. I catch a LOT more fish on scud immitations (Sawyer's killer bug) than caddis pupa immitations.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see so many fresh water shrimp in the river. I've fished scud patterns in the river where I took this kick sample but did not expect so many. Based on my small sample I say there is a lot more shrimp and scuds in this river than Caddis and May Flies. We tend to over look these patterns, which I believe is conditioning.