riverman wrote:

Did you, or have you ever noticed what I mentioned about the 'diagonal
rising zone' of the nymphs on a stream? I always sort of figured that the
nymphs would be rising in a sort of inverted snowstorm: all going upwards at
all depths of the water column. What I saw was quite different, up by the
source eddy, there were none near the surface, and I suppose a dozen meters
downstream, there were none at the bottom.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "diagonal rising zone." I've
never seen nymphs rising to the surface. Maybe your eyesight is better
than mine.

One thing I have noticed, and particularly in this green drake hatch, is
that the bugs weren't emerging all over the river. They appeared in a
certain type of current -- fast and deep. The river is still pretty
high, but clear. These were not places you'd normally expect to find
trout holding. The only reason they were there was to feed actively, and
they didn't have much time to nail the big duns.

One cool thing is that you could tell where the mayflies were emerging
by watching birds. Robin, blackbirds, and western tanagers would swoop
out from the back to nab duns in the air, and tree swallows would pick
them off the surface.

--
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