Blue Duns and surface film

Hi All,

Kick an willow at my favorite fishing hole
and you get inundated with Blue Duns.

To lay their eggs, they crawl back underwater
to the bottom. After the deed, they float to
the surface, but do not break the film. You
can not see them from above water.

How do you guys simulate this? Stuck under
the film.

Many thanks,
-T

Kick an willow at my favorite fishing hole
and you get inundated with Blue Duns.

To lay their eggs, they crawl back underwater
to the bottom. *After the deed, they float to
the surface, but do not break the film. *You
can not see them from above water.

How do you guys simulate this? *Stuck under
the film.

I've never heard of this behaivior. Is this a mayfly? What stream in
what state?
Frank Reid

Frank Reid wrote:
Kick an willow at my favorite fishing hole
and you get inundated with Blue Duns.

To lay their eggs, they crawl back underwater
to the bottom. After the deed, they float to
the surface, but do not break the film. You
can not see them from above water.

How do you guys simulate this? Stuck under
the film.

I've never heard of this behaivior. Is this a mayfly? What stream in
what state?
Frank Reid


I do believe it is a Mayfly. Carson River, Nevada.

A good example can be found in Ozzie's "Feeding Lies"
http://www.underwateroz.com/
at about 8:58 into it. It shows what I am looking at.

So, when the bugs float back up to the surface after laying
their eggs, they are all silvery with their air bubble
along their sides, and do not break the film, how do you
simulate them?

I am also noticing my fish nipping something from just
beneath the film. I suspect they are eating these
Mayflies.

-T

Okay. The actual behaivior is that the mayflies hatch (most at the
surface) from the nymph, become the "dun" and fly away. This is the
behaivior you described with the bug coming to the surface in a
bubble. Later the spinners, or egg laying adults drop onto the
water and release their eggs into the water, often, they just stay on
the water and die. They then slip beneath the surface film.
So, with these two situations, you'll have 4 major feeding actions and
their tale signs.
The first is when the mayflies are hatching from the nymph. The
mayfly shoots to the surface and tries to fly away as quickly as
possible. The trout will rocket to the surface in pursuit. This
makes a big splashy rise as the fish feed on the emergers.
When the dun hatches out at the surface, sometimes, due to damp
weather or wind, the dun will get stuck on the surface. The rise on
this one is the fish half heartedly chasing the bug to the surface and
then realizing it can just sit at the surface and munch. Not really
splashy, but a very determined rise.
The third one is with the spinners hitting the surface, before they
drop below the film. The fish will porpoise and sip the bugs off the
surface. Normally very gentle.
The final one is then spinners that have slipped below the surface.
This one you may miss. If you see the spinners dropping onto the
water, use a spinner pattern with splayed out wings as a sub-surface
fly. Fish it like a nymph. You'll nail tons of fish.
Frank Reid

On Jun 27, 9:13*pm, Frank Reid wrote:
Okay. *The actual behaivior is that the mayflies hatch (most at the
surface) from the nymph, become the "dun" and fly away. *This is the
behaivior you described with the bug coming to the surface in a
bubble. * *Later the spinners, or egg laying adults drop onto the
water and release their eggs into the water, often, they just stay on
the water and die. *They then slip beneath the surface film.
So, with these two situations, you'll have 4 major feeding actions and
their tale signs.
The first is when the mayflies are hatching from the nymph. *The
mayfly shoots to the surface and tries to fly away as quickly as
possible. *The trout will rocket to the surface in pursuit. *This
makes a big splashy rise as the fish feed on the emergers.
When the dun hatches out at the surface, sometimes, due to damp
weather or wind, the dun will get stuck on the surface. *The rise on
this one is the fish half heartedly chasing the bug to the surface and
then realizing it can just sit at the surface and munch. *Not really
splashy, but a very determined rise.
The third one is with the spinners hitting the surface, before they
drop below the film. *The fish will porpoise and sip the bugs off the
surface. *Normally very gentle.
The final one is then spinners that have slipped below the surface.
This one you may miss. *If you see the spinners dropping onto the
water, use a spinner pattern with splayed out wings as a sub-surface
fly. *Fish it like a nymph. *You'll nail tons of fish.
Frank Reid

Speaking of spinner falls......

Last night Becky and I watched what is some of the most spectacular
(and perhaps the earliest) film footage I have ever seen of a monster
hatch. The bugs looked ever so much like our own local giants, the
hex. And as is true of the hex hatch here, just about everything that
can find a way will take advantage of the windfall by gorging to
capacity. Sometime in the 60's David Attenborough accompanied a
representative of one colonial government or another on an extended
trek through uncharted territory in New Guinea (in the usual effort to
bring enlightement, etc., to the poor natives). In the morning, when
the dead and dying bugs eddied by the tens of millions in the
backwaters near the shore where the village was located, the
inhabitants came down to the water with bowls or baskets or canoes and
filled them as fast as they could.....which was not as fast as one
might expect because they stuffed the bugs in their mouths faster than
they did in the containers.....much as Becky and I will do with
mulberries here in another day or two.

g.
who, reflecting on a recent thread about the strangest things people
have caught on flies, wonders if anyone here has ever fished in new
guinea.

who, reflecting on a recent thread about the strangest things people
have caught on flies, wonders if anyone here has ever fished in new
guinea

I think that one of the channels has a new "The Bachelor" coming
out.
Frank Reid

Frank Reid wrote:
The final one is then spinners that have slipped below the surface.
This one you may miss. If you see the spinners dropping onto the
water, use a spinner pattern with splayed out wings as a sub-surface
fly. Fish it like a nymph. You'll nail tons of fish.
Frank Reid

Hi Frank,

What an extremely well written response. Thank you!

It is this final stage I am targeting. In Ralph and Lisa
Cutter's "Bugs of the Underworld" Ralph describes exactly
what you describe. Now on the other hand, in Ozzie's
"The underwater world of Trout: Feeding Lies", he shows
what looks all so very much like a Mayfly Dun, but he
never identifies them as such. He shows them going to
the water's edge, trapping air along their bodies,
crawling under water, laying their eggs on the bottom,
then dying and floating up to the surface where they
get caught under the film. Ozzie's point was that
you would never see these bugs in this state and would
wonder what the trout were feeding on. He shows
a very revealing split underwater / above water picture
to prove his point. He also shows the bug with
air still trapped along its side, even after it dies.

Ralph makes the point that their are zillions
of different types of Mayflies. I do believe my stream
has the ones that Ozzie filmed. I never see Duns on the
surface of the water. Ever. And I constantly seeing
trout picking some invisible thing off just under the film.

So how to fish. I do believe exactly what you said
is the best route.

But, back to my original question: how do you simulate
the air trapped along the side of the bugs body? From
Ozzie's photos, the silverly/shiny effect is a beckon
that attracts anything hungry in the area. Any idea how
to duplicate this? Above water I may not be able to see this,
but under water, the bugs might as well have a flashing
strobe lights on it!

Not to sound too stupid, but after writing all this,
it occurred to me that the "spinner pattern" you
recommended may accommodate the trapped air. If so,
never mind. :-)

Many thanks,
-T

Todd wrote:

But, back to my original question: how do you simulate
the air trapped along the side of the bugs body? From
Ozzie's photos, the silverly/shiny effect is a beckon
that attracts anything hungry in the area. Any idea how
to duplicate this? Above water I may not be able to see this,
but under water, the bugs might as well have a flashing
strobe lights on it!

Rub some Frog's Fanny (or hydrophobic Cab-o-sil) into the dubbing of
your spinner or soft hackle or whatever fly you're using. I think it's
best to do this before tying in the dubbing, but it probably works OK
with already-tied flies. Since this fine powder is hydrophobic
(repelling water) it promotes the formation of bubbles.

However, this will make an unweighted fly float like a cork, so you may
have to weight the fly to get it under the surface film.

--
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