Lets Talk Bugs
by Tom Lager

Did you get a chance to read the article in TROUT, the fall edition, on brook trout and Mr. Webster's legendary catch? That reminded me of an outing this past summer with Mr. President; we meandered up the Thunder for a morning's worth of "brookie" fishing.

Between episodes of drifting a Pass Lake fly around boulders and under downed timber, I pulled a birch tree limb from a riffle and inside a hollow under the bark was a handful of stoneflies – four Pteronarcys and an Acroneuria. They crawled out aggressively attempting to return to the stream, as I fumbled to get my camera out. Several made their escape before I got reasonable pictures. The ones below are Pteronarcys, likely belonging to the species P. dorsata.

These are commonly referred to as the Giant Black Stonefly. They obtain the length of 15 – 50mm and require three years to mature prior to emergence in April - May. To me these look rather pre-historic and, without realizing anything differently, many people may think they could bite. Actually they are primarily detritivores and herbivores, feeding on decaying leaves, twigs and wood debris. Giant Black Stoneflies are a great example of energy conversion from the terrestrial environment into trout biomass. Certainly any of the brookies in the Thunder would enjoy this meal. Because larvae take three years to mature, they are available all year round as a food source.

Those of you who fish out west will know this stonefly as the Salmonfly or Western Salmonfly. There Pteronarcys californica occur in much larger numbers and are important to trout fishers. Bird's Stonefly Nymph is a reasonable larvae pattern used in the west – I think it would also work here in Wisconsin. However, the productivity of fishing it in Wisconsin is likely limited due to the fact our Giant Black's are not as numerous, but they occur in small streams like the Thunder and in larger rivers like the Wolf.

In this case "taking the time to lift some birch limbs to look at bugs" turned out to be a real treat for me.