Bees, Fish, and Beavers (behave yourselves ;-} )

this may be a little long ;-)

after finishing a day of work, school, and job hunting, i prepared for a
much anticipated evening of fishing. naturally, i was delayed by the
inevitable afternoon blue ridge rain storm. i waited it out, gathered my
gear, and headed to boone fork creek on the parkway.
as a result of the heavy rain of the afternoon, the water was high, and
moving fast. in anticipation of a good catch i tied my new yellow jacket
onto my line, and heeding uncle wayno's warnings about the dangers of fast
moving water, i carefully entered the creek. thank god for felt bottom
boots.
i cast my line in the water not too far from the rocky bank, and under some
low hanging tree branches. seemed like a good place for fish to hide, but
then, what do i know? ;-)
i let the current carry the line down the creek, and then slowly brought it
back in with short little jumping movements- wanted it to look alive. i
stuck with this fly for about half an hour with no success. i then decided
to switch to an attracter fly. i stood in the the stream, enjoying the
feeling of water swirling around my legs, and when i looked down was
startled by a brown mass swimming under the water no more than two feet away
from me. when my initial confusion passed, i realized i had been "visited"
by a beaver. now, this is another wonderful thing about fishing. never in
my life had i seen a beaver, and since i started fishing, i have seen 3.
very cool. anyway, i manipulated this fly in the same way- still nothing ,
and by now it was getting to be dusk. at last, some activity that provided
me a little guidance as to the right fly. the bugs came in, and started
dipping in the water. i thought for sure the fish would start biting now.
i looked at my stash to see what would best match the fly activity, and came
up with a caddis. the other thing flying around was that pretty little fly
that looks like a fairy dressed in a green gossamer gown. what is that?
anyway, i cast my line, and made a bet with my daughter that i would have a
fish in the next ten minutes. 20 minutes later no fish. by now, it was all
but dark, and i had to question the wisdom of my daughter and i hanging out
in this empty park alone.
so, we packed up the car, and got on the parkway to head home. ****!
creepy ride home. the blue ridge parkway after an afternoon of rain gets
very foggy. not a good idea to be driving it in the dark. ( anybody seen
clive barker's in the mouth of madness? scary foggy roads dotted with very
scary happenings.) my daughter and i managed to scare the **** out of
ourselves, and each other, and then giggled the rest of the way home, once
we exited the parkway!
so, anyway, no fish caught, but i hope some good experience. this fishin
stuff is about so much more than catching fish- although that part is a rush
too!

Snakefiddler- sorry for the long post :-}

"snakefiddler" wrote in message
...
...the other thing flying around was that pretty little fly
that looks like a fairy dressed in a green gossamer gown. what is
that?...

Could be one of the lacewings:

http://www.insectary.com/lw/lacewing.htm

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/bi...rysoperla.html

Pretty common insects.

Or, it could be any number of other things.

Sounds like you had a good day despite the lack of fish. Sometimes it's
even better that way.

Wolfgang

In snakefiddler wrote:
the other thing flying around was that pretty little fly
that looks like a fairy dressed in a green gossamer gown.
what is that?

Sounds to me like maybe a green Lacewing. Looks like this:

http://entweb.clemson.edu/cuentres/c...fici/ce171.htm

Todd (remove hook to reply)

Todd Enders wrote:

In snakefiddler wrote:

the other thing flying around was that pretty little fly
that looks like a fairy dressed in a green gossamer gown.
what is that?


Sounds to me like maybe a green Lacewing. Looks like this:

http://entweb.clemson.edu/cuentres/c...fici/ce171.htm

Todd (remove hook to reply)

Nice Todd.

How many hours you got in that thing?

Willi

"Willi" wrote in message
...


Todd Enders wrote:

In snakefiddler wrote:

the other thing flying around was that pretty little fly
that looks like a fairy dressed in a green gossamer gown.
what is that?


Sounds to me like maybe a green Lacewing. Looks like this:

http://entweb.clemson.edu/cuentres/c...fici/ce171.htm

Todd (remove hook to reply)

Nice Todd.

How many hours you got in that thing?

Willi




that would be the one- i need a fly for that, i'll check appalachian
anglers. what would i ask for? any special name for it?

snake

snakefiddler wrote:

that would be the one- i need a fly for that, i'll check appalachian
anglers. what would i ask for? any special name for it?

Have you ever seen a fish eat one of those ? I never have.
The green lacewing is a terrestrial insect that isn't likely
to end up in the water. Terrestrial insects that are likely
to end up in the water, and on the menu, are beetles, ants,
crickets and hoppers.

--
Ken Fortenberry

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
m...
snakefiddler wrote:

that would be the one- i need a fly for that, i'll check appalachian
anglers. what would i ask for? any special name for it?

Have you ever seen a fish eat one of those ? I never have.

no forty, in my extensive experience fly fishing i have never seen a fish
eat one of those! SEG


The green lacewing is a terrestrial insect that isn't likely
to end up in the water. Terrestrial insects that are likely
to end up in the water, and on the menu, are beetles, ants,
crickets and hoppers.

thanks for the tip- i saw some grasshoppers at appalachian anglers that were
so realistic they were almost too creepy to touch. (but then, ripping worms
in half and sticking them on hooks isn't creepy? ;- )

got some beetles among the goodies that frank sent me. i'll try em.

snakefiddler

--
Ken Fortenberry

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
m...
Have you ever seen a fish eat one of those ? I never have.
The green lacewing is a terrestrial insect that isn't likely
to end up in the water. Terrestrial insects that are likely
to end up in the water, and on the menu, are beetles, ants,
crickets and hoppers.


Here is a link for information about some forgotten terrestrials.
http://www.westfly.com/feature/0308/feature_747.htm

I've never noticed an inchworm in the water, but I'm just getting to the
stage of curiosity that I'm considering getting a seine and small kit to
capture bugs in the stream flow. It has been a long time since high school
biology, but I'd try to do the easy identifications with a field guide.

In Willi wrote:

Todd Enders wrote in
:

In Willi wrote:



Seems Willi's been getting terse lately!

Scott