1. Session TWO

2. Life Cycle of Trout

3. Egg
Trout eggs have black eyes and a central line that show healthy development. Egg hatching depends on the water temperature in an aquarium or in a natural habitat.

4. Alevin
Once hatched, the trout have a large yolk sac used a food source. Each alevin slowly begins to develop adult trout characteristics. An alevin lives close the gravel until it “buttons up.”

5. Fry
Buttoning-up occurs when alevin absorb the yolk sac and being to feed on aquatic insects. Fry swim close to the water surface, allowing the swim ladder to fill with air and help the fry float through water.

6. Fingerling and Parr
When a fry grows to 2-5 inches, it becomes a fingerling. When develops large dark markings, it then becomes a parr. Local schools that participate with Cumberland Valley Chapter Trout Unlimited classroom trout raising project will release the Trout into its natural habitat at the fingerling stage.

7. Juvenile
In the natural habitat, a trout avoids predators, including wading birds and larger fish, by hiding in underwater roots and brush. As a juvenile, a trout resembles an adult but is not yet old or large enough to spawn.

8. Adult
In the adult stage, female and male Trout spawn in fall and winter. Trout turn vibrant in color during the spawning and then lay eggs in fish nests, or redds, in the gravel. The life cycle of the Trout continues into the egg stage again.

9. The Trout Body

10. A Successful Fly-Fisher must know about what trout eat.
Entomology (Bugs)
A Successful Fly-Fisher must know about what trout eat.

11. Entomology (bugs) Purpose
Show how the fly-fisher can use knowledge of aquatic critters
Improve fishing
Improve fly selection

12. Aquatic Macroinvertebrates
Aquatic = pertaining to water
Especially organisms living in fresh water
Macro___ = prefix meaning “large”
able to see with naked eye
Invertebrate = animal without a backbone
Insects, crustaceans, worms, others

13. What you need to know Trout do NOT speak Latin
Trout can’t identify macroinvertebrates
Trout know what looks good to eat
Trout know what food items act like
Trout face upstream . . .
aquatic macroinvertebrates drift downstream
trout eat macroinvertebrates

14. Bug Characteristics Shape – what does it look like?
Size – how big or small is it?
Color – what color or colors is it?
Habitat – where does it live in nature?
Behavior – what does it act like?

15. Adults have same Shape Mayfly adults hold wings up like sails
Stonefly adults fold wings flat over back
Caddisfly adults fold wings like a pup tent

16. Match the natural with size & color variations of the same fly pattern
Choose fly pattern style based on type of water to be fished
Vary the color & size to match the naturals of the locale you fish
Use the appropriate stripping action or dead drift to match the natural’s behavior

17. Flies represent naturals
Dry Fly – fished on water’s surface
Adult: mayfly (also dun), caddis, stonefly, dragonfly, terrestrial (grasshopper, ant, spider)
Nymph – fished on or near bottom
Larval stage: mayfly, stonefly, caddis, etc.
Scud, sowbug (NOT aquatic insects)
Midge – fished in surface film
Adult midge & emerging midge
Soft-hackle – fished just under surface film
Pupal stage of caddis & emerging mayfly dun
Streamer – fished in water column or bottom
“minnow,” leech, crayfish

18. Mayfly Life Cycle

19. Mayflies Egg – larva (nymph) – emerger – dun – adult
Diverse shapes of nymphs
Dun is a pre-adult with wings
Adults have no mouthparts or digestive tracts
Adult female spinners are susceptible to trout while laying eggs
Adult males & females may be different sizes and colors

20. Mayfly larva (nymph) Single set of wing pads 2 or 3 tails (usually 3)
Gills on abdominal segments

21. 4 mayfly larva body types
Swimmers
Slow-mod water
Crawlers
Mod-fast water
Clingers
Swift water
Burrowers
Placid water

22. Behavior more important than fly pattern of mayfly nymph
Swimmers in slow-mod. water
Move with bursts of rapid up & down flips, moving from a few inches to a few feet
Crawlers in mod.-fast water with weedbeds or rocks with nooks & crannies
Poor swimmers; drift with current while trying to get to the bottom
Clingers in swift water, like riffles
Good at staying on or under rocks
Migrates to slower water before emerging as duns
Burrowers in placid water
Live in burrows until emerging to surface to become duns

23. Various mayfly families

24. Stonefly Life Cycle

25. Stoneflies egg – larva (nymph) with many moltings – adult
Mature larvae migrate to stream edges
Known as “clean water” insects
Not active swimmers
Clings under rocks & crevices in swift water
May drift with the current, esp. before emergence

26. Stonefly larva (nymph)
Two distinct sets of wing pads
Always 2 tails – set wide apart
No gills or gills may resemble undulating tufts under thorax

27. Various stonefly families

28. Caddis Fly Life Cycle

29. Caddisflies egg – larva (on bottom) – pupa (rises to surface) – adult
Live as larvae most of the year
As pupa one to several weeks
As adults 1-3 weeks (unable to eat)
Extremely diverse group, 2 major kinds
Case-building (most common)
Free-living

30. Caddisfly larva No wing pads No tails
May have stubby appendages with hooks at the end of abdomen
Smallish head; fleshy segmented abdomen
Looks like a caterpillar with 6 legs in thorax area

31. Various caddisfly families

32. Midges Egg – larva (2 or 3 moltings) – pupa – adult
Life cycle I week to 1 year
Abundant and diverse - makes up for small size
True flies – have only two wings

33. Midge larva No wing pads
No tails (may have knobby protrusions at rear end)
No legs apparent
Tiny head
Elongated, maggot-like shape
Segmented abdomen (sometimes with pairs of fleshy knobs)
Can’t swim, but grub around on the bottom

34. Midge pupae most important to the fly fisher
Looks like a hunched-back midge larva
Wings bunched in a dark bundle at the thorax
Head barely visible; body tapers
May have gas trapped in pupal shuck
May have distinct tuft at head end

35. Damsels & Dragons

36. Water Beetles

37. Water bugs
Water boatman
Water strider

38. Fishfly, Dobsonfly,& Alderfy Larva (Dobsonfly larvae are also known as hellgrammites)

39. Scuds & Sowbugs are crustaceans, NOT aquatic insect larvae
Scuds flat side-to-side
Sowbugs flat top-to-bottom
Fast swimmers – short bursts
Poor swimmers – dead drift

40. Crayfish aka crawfish or crawdads

41. Clams & snails aka mollusks

42. Aquatic worms & leeches

43. Relative Size Can you tell what they are?

44. Identify

45. Identify

46. Identify

47. Identify

48. Identify

49. Identify

50. End of Session TWO