Underwater Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 4

This simple rubber-legged foam beetle is one of my favorite flies for Arctic grayling. It's quick to tie so I don't mind losing one or two on snags. It's durable, so one fly can last a hundred fish or more. It never needs floatant to ride the surface well. Most importantly, it catches fish, although grayling often hit almost anything. The bold profile and attention-grabbing plop of the beetle, I think, draw fish from farther away than a more subtle fly might, and it often draws unusually savage strikes.

Two young of the year brook trout hide in a little spring hole in a remote, crystal-clear small stream.

A variety of cased caddisfly larvae, probably mostly Neophylax, have clustered along the backside of a rock in fast water. There seem to be some Helicopsychidae larvae clustered along the bottom, and a few other taxa are mixed in. It's interesting that several larvae have especially large stones placed over the front openings of their cases, perhaps to block the case off for pupation.

It does seem to be the wrong time of year for Neophylax to be pupating, but that was the ID given for one of these which I collected and photographed up close.

In this picture: Caddisfly Genus Helicopsyche (Speckled Peters) and Caddisfly Genus Neophylax (Autumn Mottled Sedges).

Not a bad home if you're a brook trout.

There's a pretty nice brookie on the left here, probably 14 inches long.

This tiny brook trout fry lived in a crystal clear nursery area where a large spring flows straight from the ground.

Cased caddis larvae blanket this section of stream bottom.

In this picture: Insect Order Trichoptera (Caddisflies).

A Brachycentrus "Apple Caddis" pupa scoots around in the surface film. Apparently it had some difficulty emerging, so I was able to slip my camera underneath it and take a picture from below.

In this picture: Caddisfly Species Brachycentrus appalachia (Apple Caddis).