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> Here's a stonefly for you to identify

Levwood	June 16th, 2013, 6:53 pm
Grosse Pte. Michigan Posts: 11	This stonefly blundered into me on the South Branch, AuSable River near Grayling, Michigan last week. I call it a big, black stonefly. Some of you may call it a black Plecoptera. Can someone give me a positive id on this guy?
	Lev
Oldredbarn	June 16th, 2013, 9:22 pm
Novi, MI Posts: 2608	I want to say Pteronarcys dorsata...but...What color was it? Were there orange highlights on this bug or maybe yellow? These are our largest stoneflies here in Michigan... They are huge...38-60mm...The shield like covering over the "pronotal disk" is characteristic...Thank you Ann Miller! :) I have one posted from a few years back resting on a blade of grass. The shucks at seen at streamside on twigs etc sticking out of the water. Sometimes two or three on top of each other...They usually emerge in the middle of the night. Spence http://www.troutnut.com/topic/3278/Au-Sable-river-Michigan-06-25-2011
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
TNEAL	June 17th, 2013, 7:44 am
GRAYLING. MICHIGAN Posts: 278	Hence the success of the Houghton Lake Special.... the giant dry fly with deer hair down wing.... Tight lines, Tim
Levwood	June 17th, 2013, 11:26 am
Grosse Pte. Michigan Posts: 11	the color was mostly dark olive to black. I did not have a chance to turn him over - ran away from me. So, I guess it was the Pteronarcys dorsata. Thanks, Lev
	Lev
Oldredbarn	June 17th, 2013, 11:47 am
Novi, MI Posts: 2608	Lev...It's the cousin to the so-called "salmonfly" made famous on western waters, Pteronarcys californica. It's one honking big bug...Did it startle you? :) I was on a float trip on the Au Sable a few years back and had a Dobsonfly (Hellgrammite) land on the back of my neck and it creeped me out. :) I was fishing after dark on the Huron river and had one of those Sphinx moths or Luna Moths fly right in to my face. I think it thought I was a tree and was going to land on my face. I ducked and swung my arm in to it...It looked like a damn bird coming at me. :) "Nighttime maybe the right time", but I've run in to some odd things after dark...Once I hit a bat with my rod while in an Au Sable riverboat...I thought I'd hooked the guide and was afraid to look back at him, only to see him doubled over laughing, "Damn Spence! You just whacked a bat. Is your rod ok?!" By-the-way...If you see my wife, I don't fish after dark, ok? ;) Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Crepuscular	June 17th, 2013, 3:13 pm
Boiling Springs, PA Posts: 923	I think it thought I was a tree and was going to land on my face. veggie ;) I once saw a bat land on the back of a guy downstream of me a short distance during the white fly on the yellow breeches, lots of weeping and wailing, splashing and ending with a very ungraceful splash.I think I wet my waders... I also have a friend who gets spooked by dinosaurs when fishing at night (he also refuses to use port-a-pots since he saw Jurassic Park).
Oldredbarn	June 17th, 2013, 11:19 pm
Novi, MI Posts: 2608	veggie ;) Funny! There is a cover article in the latest Sierra Club magazine called, "Eat Your Bugs!"...I don't think so! "Sure, They seem icky. But They're Good for you (and the planet)." Hmmm...I think I'll stick to Sheetz...;) Spence I have swallowed a few reed smuts and gnats over the years of fishing after dark...But I don't do that anymore, ;), right dear?!
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Entoman	June 19th, 2013, 2:09 am
Northern CA & ID Posts: 2604	Doin' a hit and run from the road.:) Looks like a perlid (Golden Stone family) to me. For starters - wrong head shape to be a pteronarcyd. Agnetina capitata (Northern Stone)?
	"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Oldredbarn	June 19th, 2013, 7:00 am
Novi, MI Posts: 2608	Yeah...I agree. The size didn't seem quite right and the dorsata has serious orange highlights visable from the top. If you google it "bug guide" has a nice picture of Lev's bug. It's twin. Fancy warrior shield/plate and all. Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

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