white stonefly nymphs???

[LigonierA1]

I was turning over rocks in a small mountain freestone stream yesterday and found a white, bloated looking stone fly nymph. These are small, not big Salmonfly-esque critters, think more like the early black stones, 14-16.

I have heard or seen mention of a white stonefly nymph before, but don't recall the where/when/why of this critter.

Any thoughts on this? I'm very puzzled by this little unique thing, but then again, perhaps it is I who has just opened my eyes to them....

It had probably just molted. In the book by Leiser and Boyle on Soneflies they mention this. Evidently trout really like the freshly molted stoneflies and the book even recommends a pattern for them, supposedly becasue the fish preferentially look for them.

[LigonierA1]

Ah, that makes sense. I found quite a few other stonefly nymphs in the stream that were very rusty, perhaps red brown. As well as quite a few that were more dark brown/grey, much like the adults. The adults are typically black or dark brown so both the white and the rusty coloration puzzled me some. Perhaps after being white htey turn this rust color as they morph back into brown/grey/black?

Yeah that's it. They gradually darken until they molt again.



[This message has been edited by ktokj (edited 14 February 2005).]

[RonMT]

We tried those out here and found that we caught a lot more fish on Regular Stoneflies. The white ones just did not produce like the dark ones did. We caught a few fish on them but not many. Just a heads up. Ron


[This message has been edited by RonMT (edited 14 February 2005).]

[LigonierA1]

Thanks for the feedback.