From: jdw@sniff.wfo.dec.com (Joe Whittemore)
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing
Subject: Fish Story and 'Bug' question ...
Date: 20 Nov 92 01:23:19 GMT
Reply-To: jdw@sniff.wfo.dec.com.UUCP (Joe Whittemore)
Organization: LES Engineering in Westfield, Ma.


    This past Sunday after noon I had to chose between raking the leaves off
of my back yard or fishing ...............

    I started out by hiking up to 'The Bend' from the lower gate (the road
in to the lower gate - unbeknownst to me - has been open since mid-summer).

    There were a couple of hikers up in the valley but no fisherpeople.

    The water was up at the level where it usually is during the spring,
not unexpected after a week of scattered rain, but was clear and cold. I
caught a small rainbow ( approx. 8 inches) from the eddy on a Colorado
spoon, threw a few more casts, switched to a little cleo, lost it to a
snag, and switched to a Mepps #1 black furry (black spinner blade w/red-
orange spots, red bead at the treble and the treble dressed with red-
orange hackle). Cast this around the pool and then threw a cast up into
the fast water at the head of the pool. Just as the spinner swung into the
slacker water closer to shore I thought I got hung up but in fact was
taken very gently by what turned out to be a beautiful FAT FIRM sixteen
plus inch rainbow! The fish fought hard against the four pound Stren but
the fight was quick as the hookup had occurred almost at my feet. The color
on this fish was spectacular; dark brown/green with a tight pattern of
black squiggles and a wide bright burgundy band along the lateral line. The
burgundy band seemed to be quite scratched up ..... ?from working out a
reed?

    Being C&R both fish were admired and released.

    I stopped to fish below the Rt112 bridge on my way home (the first
bridge below Knightville damn) and after no luck with hardware tied on
a piece of garden hackle. Dead drift down into a hole behind a boulder
and there's the pickup - set the hook and found myself connected to a
VERY STRONG fish! Fought/played for a minute or two and landed a 16.5
inch rainbow just as nice and pretty as the other. This fish I kept
and killed. It was a bull trout with developed but not overly gorged milt
sacks and a FULL stomach. I cut the stomach and found it to be full
of gravel and little hard shelled aquatic 'bugs'. These bugs were dark
mottled brown, the size of a lady bug, a small thin tail, a very flat
underside with ?6? legs towards the head (legs underneath - not visible
looking down from the top), and a 'pin head' head ....         

                                    *
                                   ( )
                                    `

    Hard enough that handling them did not crush the shell.

    Nice salmon pink meat ........... can't wait to put that fish on my
plate.

    Now - anyone want to hazard a guess as to what the little buggies
were/are?

---

Joe Whittemore - From where the Westfield
                      Meets the Westfield
                         By the Westfield
                            In Huntington (MA)

                      whittemore@wfodev.enet.dec.com  
                 [ jdw%sniff.wfo.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com ]
From: spikes@hpscit.sc.hp.com (Bill Spikes)
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 21:11:19 GMT
Subject: Re: nymph colors: fly tying
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara, CA