Tent Caterpillars

Hello All,

A couple weekends ago I went to the Catskills with a friend. he is from
Ohio, and had never yet visited the "Holy Land" of the Beaverkill. On
the way i regaled him with descriptions of the day-long insect activity.

Long story short, the fishing was only so-so. Plenty of bugs, few fish
rising to them. The only explanation I could think of was the fact that
the Delaware watershed valley is experiencing an extremely bad year for
tent caterpillars. Entire hillsides were naked. Large, dinner plate
sized masses of caterpillars were bunched on the trunks of trees to
pupate into cocoons. There were always errant fuzzy worms floating in
the river. Now the question - do fish eat gypsy moths or tent
caterpillars? We did not see a single fish eat a caterpillar. With the
huge abundance of them, it would not be hard to imagine the fish quickly
eating all it could hold, and only taking a mild interest in mayflies.
Fishermen we spoke to commented on how all the trout were real fat. The
only thing that could have solved it would be a stomach pump, which I
never bothered doing. So does anybody know anything about trout eating
caterpillars?

Pete Collin

"Peter A. Collin" wrote in
:

Hello All,

A couple weekends ago I went to the Catskills with a friend. he is
from
Ohio, and had never yet visited the "Holy Land" of the Beaverkill. On
the way i regaled him with descriptions of the day-long insect
activity.

Long story short, the fishing was only so-so. Plenty of bugs, few fish
rising to them. The only explanation I could think of was the fact
that
the Delaware watershed valley is experiencing an extremely bad year for
tent caterpillars. Entire hillsides were naked. Large, dinner plate
sized masses of caterpillars were bunched on the trunks of trees to
pupate into cocoons. There were always errant fuzzy worms floating in
the river. Now the question - do fish eat gypsy moths or tent
caterpillars? We did not see a single fish eat a caterpillar. With
the
huge abundance of them, it would not be hard to imagine the fish
quickly
eating all it could hold, and only taking a mild interest in mayflies.
Fishermen we spoke to commented on how all the trout were real fat.
The
only thing that could have solved it would be a stomach pump, which I
never bothered doing. So does anybody know anything about trout eating
caterpillars?

Pete Collin



Many catepillers are bitter, I seem to recall. I just got back from the
catskills, and those suckers were all over the place. I did OK, and took
about 15 fish over the day and a half fishing time I snuck in--but I was
with a coupla guys that fish there often, and that had to help. I think
the problem is the water was up, then back down, then up. I saw a ton of
bugs, with the major hatch shifting about every ten minutes for about an
hour at dusk, with nary a fish rising.



--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

I can't be sure what happened to you, but to answer your question about
trout eating caterpillars - Yes!
Reminds me of a day I was working a nice brown that was lying under a tree.
I would get a good float over him, he would put his nose under the fly and
drift with it for a few feet, turn and go back to his spot. He would only
look at each fly once and would do the same trick as I changed flies often,
interspersed with giving him a rest. There was no hatch and he was not
feeding. Suddenly a tent-type caterpillar dropped into the water right above
him. He didn't hesitate a split second, and was on that caterpillar
immediately - great fun for me, though I think I did say, "Darn!", or
something like that.

Gene


"Peter A. Collin" wrote in message
...
Hello All,

A couple weekends ago I went to the Catskills with a friend. he is from
Ohio, and had never yet visited the "Holy Land" of the Beaverkill. On the
way i regaled him with descriptions of the day-long insect activity.

Long story short, the fishing was only so-so. Plenty of bugs, few fish
rising to them. The only explanation I could think of was the fact that
the Delaware watershed valley is experiencing an extremely bad year for
tent caterpillars. Entire hillsides were naked. Large, dinner plate
sized masses of caterpillars were bunched on the trunks of trees to pupate
into cocoons. There were always errant fuzzy worms floating in the river.
Now the question - do fish eat gypsy moths or tent caterpillars? We did
not see a single fish eat a caterpillar. With the huge abundance of them,
it would not be hard to imagine the fish quickly eating all it could hold,
and only taking a mild interest in mayflies. Fishermen we spoke to
commented on how all the trout were real fat. The only thing that could
have solved it would be a stomach pump, which I never bothered doing. So
does anybody know anything about trout eating caterpillars?

Pete Collin