Entomology class--why did I wait this long?

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pl4a

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Yesterday I took my first on-the-river entomology class. We started at a the dam of a local tailwater and followed the river 10 miles down from there. We stopped every few miles to seive, identify bugs, and understand why each bug type was there relative to the conditions (sun, oxygen, flow, etc). I was amazed in the drastic change in type and number of bugs in this stretch. Perhaps what was most surprising to me was the change in just the first 2 miles of the dam.

This significantly alters how I plan to fish these waters going forward. Why did I wait this long to take this simple class? I certainly don't the latin names for anything that we found today...but I know many of the common names, why that bug is present in that section of water, what fly in my box imitates the bug, and why it works. Plus, there a few flies I would never have previously tried b/c I was convinced that those bugs were not in this water.

Wish I would have done this years earlier. If nothing else, this seems like a tremendous confidence builder in fishing the "right" fly and I can focus more on presentation. Anyway, thought I'd pass along my recent experience.

-Paul
 
comeonavs

comeonavs

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Niice to hear, Ive been thinking of doing the same thing.

I am up in Northern Colorado as well, who did you take the class through ? The only guide I know who teaches these is Al Ritt.
 
jcw355

jcw355

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I took one last November. One day there was 5 hours of class time, the next day was a half day on the water seining. Enjoyed it very much.
 
HuronRiverDan

HuronRiverDan

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I along with a couple of other members of our fishing club have been doing bug round-ups for the local watershed council; we're collecting at specific points on the river looking for indicator species. Taking the training and doing the actual field work both on the water and at the ID day is a real revelation when it comes to tying. The first time we did a bug collection I was amazed at the number of different insects we found in our assigned collection points. I would urge anyone to get involved or take a class like you guys did.

Dan
 
stenacron

stenacron

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That's pretty cool! It can only make you a better fly fisherman to know what's going on in the stream bed.

My daughter and I did a few amateur macro-studies on some of our local streams back east and it is amazing how diverse the insect life is down there! We even discovered a "hatch" on the upper reaches of a local stream that we didn't know existed prior to doing the study.
 
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manotheskip

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Does anyone know of any classes in the Los Angeles area? Or in the OKC area from now until May 4th?
 
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flyfishingguide38

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I took a trout ecology class for grad school and loved the experience. I was the fly fishing geek asking all the questions... some of which stumped the professors!

In one class, we snorkeled a gin clear small trout stream. It was one of the most memorable things I've done. You can literally use your hands to pull yourself upstream to within inches of trout and watch them feed. We rented scuba grade wetsuits to stay warm and help with floatation.

It was very interesting to watch the pecking order between large fish in the small pools. Also interesting to see trout each junk like small bark or sand and spit it back out. They are also sampling, which is what they must do with our flies too!

Montana Angler Guide
 
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