Lets Talk Bugs

 Over these last weeks, our woods have started to make the seasonal turn toward autumn; the grasses hang low over the streams that wander through the meadows. As I walked toward one of my favorite grassy banked streams, across the field among asters, golden rod, blue stem and mints, grasshoppers dodged my steps. This reminded me of a plan left unfulfilled – I had thought to fish with hoppers this summer. Perhaps you did; there many styles to choose from – just vary the size and color and I am certain trout will rise to the occasion.

 I checked out the DNR taxonomic literature for Wisconsin grasshoppers, yes the DNR has something to say about grasshopper. For example, there are over 70 different species in our state and generally fall into three groups referred to as spurthroated, bandwinged and slantfaced in common terms; examples of the first two groups are shown below. Grasshoppers are members of the Order Orthoptera and Family Acrididae. The DNR publication does a great job of characterizing our grasshoppers in typical technical terms; however, the most applicable information to our art is the colored pictures and species spatial and temporal distributional data. The reference is Guide to the Grasshoppers of Wisconsin by Kathryn Kirk and Charles R. Bomar; check it out on-line.

 Several of my favorite hoppers are the Migratory hopper (Fig. 1) and the Carolina hopper (Fig. 2) (These figures are in color on the Fox Valley Trout Unlimited website http://www.foxvalleytu.org , thanks to Steve Heuser).

I like the Migratory hopper because it is very common throughout the state and is abundant as an adult from August to October.  It is common to sand and pine barrens, sand river terraces and oak / pine forests. The size is approximately one inch in length – a good size for trout and typical in color for hopper fly patterns in general.

Figure 1. Migratory grasshopper (Melanoplus sanguinipes)

 The Carolina grasshopper, in my view, is not as important as a trout food choice, but to me is beautiful in its camouflage and unique in its flight display of colorful wings. Large trout would like this hopper, but its availability to them is limited because the Carolina hopper prefers inhabiting disturbed open areas with bare ground - not a typical trout riparian environment. This hopper is about two inches in length and is capable of flight distances of 30 to 50 feet – I chased the one in Fig. 2 a long way before I netted it.

Figure 2.Carolina grasshopper (Dissosteria carolina)

I was surprised to learn Wisconsin has an endangered grasshopper species, the Lake Huron Locust found only in DoorCounty and parts of Michigan and Ontario. What is not surprising is the reason for it’s endangered status – it requires “undisturbed high quality sand dunes” for survival - a familiar story is it not? Just like trout and salmon, without adequate habitats they also are endangered.

 Well I’ll try again next summer to float a hopper-fly or at least watch trout slurp hoppers that leap from my path to a perilous float trip through the riffles. I imagine I am not the only one who has floated one of these critters downstream to just see who rises. As I now think of His autumn creatures – Chinook maybe - I will also ”take the time to shake the grasses and look at bugs”.

  Tom Lager