Irrigation Ditch Question

I live in the Helena , MT area. Last summer a friend and I were
headed out to the Mo. to float in late July or Aug. We were hoping
to do some morining trico fishing. He forgot his hat and as he was
driving we headed back East to his house to get his hat. With the sun
coming from the East we could now see large plumes of trico s
almost like dust whirls over the road. I know they were tricos as
we stopped to get a look at them. The only water nearby was an
irrigation ditch . The water in this ditch comes from the Mo. River
, in the Canyon Ferry Dam, and is pumped thru the mountain to
irrigate fields in the valley. This ditch is dry all winter.

There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch or are they somehow making their way in the pumped
water from the Mo. Obviously they are mating and laying eggs in the
ditch so the opportunity is there for them to be reproducing
naturally if they can survive a dry winter. If not what a waste of
insects !

MT

I have an irrigation ditch that runs from April through October only, and at
best. There are mayfly hatches there too and I've wondered the same thing.

bruce h

From: "bruiser"

I have an irrigation ditch that runs from April through October only, and at
best. There are mayfly hatches there too and I've wondered the same thing.

Hatches or spinner falls? I've seen spinner falls on paved roads.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

I live in the Helena , MT area. Last summer a friend and I were
headed out to the Mo. to float in late July or Aug. We were hoping
to do some morining trico fishing. He forgot his hat and as he was
driving we headed back East to his house to get his hat. With the sun
coming from the East we could now see large plumes of trico s
almost like dust whirls over the road. I know they were tricos as
we stopped to get a look at them. The only water nearby was an
irrigation ditch . The water in this ditch comes from the Mo. River
, in the Canyon Ferry Dam, and is pumped thru the mountain to
irrigate fields in the valley. This ditch is dry all winter.

There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch or are they somehow making their way in the pumped
water from the Mo. Obviously they are mating and laying eggs in the
ditch so the opportunity is there for them to be reproducing
naturally if they can survive a dry winter. If not what a waste of
insects !

MT

Same deal with the one that goes through my yard. You've seen it!


-pw
remove astericks (*) from e-mail address
(use paulwilliamson at spamcop dot net)


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In article ,
ojunk (George Adams) wrote:

From: "bruiser"

I have an irrigation ditch that runs from April through October only,
and at
best. There are mayfly hatches there too and I've wondered the same
thing.

Hatches or spinner falls? I've seen spinner falls on paved roads.


George Adams


Hi George
I guess it would have to be a spinner fall as what I m seeing is
the actuall mating swarm and the tricos are confused by the paved
road and are attempting to lay eggs upon it.

The reason I m curious about this is that I wonder if the nymphs,
as I assume the eggs are hatching when there s water in the canal, can
survive dry periods and still remain viable. I d also assume they
freeze in the winter as they couldn t burrow into the mud deeply
enough to escape freezing. It may shed some light on how well insect
life can sustain itself in other streams such as the West Branch of
the Delaware River when they cut the flows way back and expose the
stream bed.

MT

In article ,
wrote:

I live in the Helena , MT area. Last summer a friend and I were
headed out to the Mo. to float in late July or Aug. We were hoping
to do some morining trico fishing. He forgot his hat and as he was
driving we headed back East to his house to get his hat. With the sun
coming from the East we could now see large plumes of trico s
almost like dust whirls over the road. I know they were tricos as
we stopped to get a look at them. The only water nearby was an
irrigation ditch . The water in this ditch comes from the Mo. River
, in the Canyon Ferry Dam, and is pumped thru the mountain to
irrigate fields in the valley. This ditch is dry all winter.

There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch or are they somehow making their way in the pumped
water from the Mo. Obviously they are mating and laying eggs in the
ditch so the opportunity is there for them to be reproducing
naturally if they can survive a dry winter. If not what a waste of
insects !

MT

Same deal with the one that goes through my yard. You've seen it!


-pw
Yes and cant wait to fish it in July , the hell with the
yellowstone ! MT

Mark Tinsky wrote in message ...


There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch

....don't know about tricos.
But I do know thousands of large fish die in those ditches
every fall, when they suddenly shut the water off.
Birds and rodents remove the evidence within a day or two.
So the evidence is ephemeral.

The ditch riders say fish-screens at the diversions
are impossible, as they would be constantly clogged
with stuff.

Perhaps if they shut the ditches off in volume increments
over a 3-4 day period: some of those fish might make
it back out to the river. The effects of catch and release
add up to between zip and none, compared to the number
of fish that die in western irrigation ditches each year.

In article ,
wrote:

I live in the Helena , MT area. Last summer a friend and I were
headed out to the Mo. to float in late July or Aug. We were hoping
to do some morining trico fishing. He forgot his hat and as he was
driving we headed back East to his house to get his hat. With the sun
coming from the East we could now see large plumes of trico s
almost like dust whirls over the road. I know they were tricos as
we stopped to get a look at them. The only water nearby was an
irrigation ditch . The water in this ditch comes from the Mo. River
, in the Canyon Ferry Dam, and is pumped thru the mountain to
irrigate fields in the valley. This ditch is dry all winter.

There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch or are they somehow making their way in the pumped
water from the Mo. Obviously they are mating and laying eggs in the
ditch so the opportunity is there for them to be reproducing
naturally if they can survive a dry winter. If not what a waste of
insects !

MT

Same deal with the one that goes through my yard. You've seen it!


-pw
Yes and cant wait to fish it in July , the hell with the
yellowstone ! MT


Not nice! Sure, it may not be the MO but that's fine by me. How many
trout do you catch on top during the summer there on foam hoppers,
Royal Wulffs, Humpies, Trudes, Orange and Red and Yellow and Purple
things and any other "crazy" fly?? :-)

And you have a ton of whities there too, only they are bigger!




-pw
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wrote...
In article ,
wrote:

I live in the Helena , MT area. Last summer a friend and I were
headed out to the Mo. to float in late July or Aug. We were hoping
to do some morining trico fishing. He forgot his hat and as he was
driving we headed back East to his house to get his hat. With the sun
coming from the East we could now see large plumes of trico s
almost like dust whirls over the road. I know they were tricos as
we stopped to get a look at them. The only water nearby was an
irrigation ditch . The water in this ditch comes from the Mo. River
, in the Canyon Ferry Dam, and is pumped thru the mountain to
irrigate fields in the valley. This ditch is dry all winter.

There were millions of tricos in plumes all up and down the road.
My question is do the eggs and nymphs somehow survive the winter
in a dry ditch or are they somehow making their way in the pumped
water from the Mo. Obviously they are mating and laying eggs in the
ditch so the opportunity is there for them to be reproducing
naturally if they can survive a dry winter. If not what a waste of
insects !

MT

Same deal with the one that goes through my yard. You've seen it!


-pw
Yes and cant wait to fish it in July , the hell with the
yellowstone ! MT


Not nice! Sure, it may not be the MO but that's fine by me. How many
trout do you catch on top during the summer there on foam hoppers,
Royal Wulffs, Humpies, Trudes, Orange and Red and Yellow and Purple
things and any other "crazy" fly?? :-)

And you have a ton of whities there too, only they are bigger!

Having a vested interest in both, I am keeping out of this one. :-)
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt on either yahoo or earthlink to respond via email)

-pw
Yes and cant wait to fish it in July , the hell with the
yellowstone ! MT


Not nice! Sure, it may not be the MO but that's fine by me. How many
trout do you catch on top during the summer there on foam hoppers,
Royal Wulffs, Humpies, Trudes, Orange and Red and Yellow and Purple
things and any other "crazy" fly?? :-)

And you have a ton of whities there too, only they are bigger!

Hey Paul,


Didn t mean to slight the Yellowstone as much as to tout the
expectation of great fishing at Williamson Falls this summer. Warren
and I were talking about it while he was up and he said I
probably shouldn t have posted anything about it, secret spots and all
that. So from now on mum s the word !

Re : the Mo I think the trout there would laugh their asses off at:
Royal Wulffs, Humpies, Trudes, Orange and Red and Yellow and Purple
things. They do eat foam hoppers particularly if it s windy out,,,
for a change G

I also agree our Whitties are bigger tho sadly not as plentiful
as the ones on the Yellowstone! You could use some Mo. pelicans to
reduce their population a bit.

Warren and I were catching some pretty butt ugly fish yesterday
which made whitefish look appealing. They are some type of sucker.
One had a thick black band across his eyes which made him looked
like a masked fish.

Luckily there were a number of 20 " rainbows mixed in, that were
real hogs. This was a spot below Lincoln. Went back today and
caught some more. The only sucker I caught must have weighed 5
pounds ! Then a lite breeze came up about 22 mph and pretty much
ended the fishing.

MT