Watersnipe Flies (Athericidae)

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

does anyone know much about :
Watersnipe Flies (Athericidae)
a trout spit up a bunch of these yesterday. I had to look them up to find them.

I’m wondering more about their lifecycle. If anyone knows of any good links, or information, I’d appreciate it.

thanks
markg

2

Mark,

Try this webstie for some similar flies (http://bugguide.net/node/view/14950/tree). Look at the picture of the Rhagionidae since Athericidae was separated from this family if I remember correctly. I hope this helps. You might be interested to know that there are numerous superficially similar dipteran larva that are quite common in the northwest and it might make a really good searching pattern.

Adam

3

Thanks,

yeh, I was thinking of it as a searching pattern. I saw these in Wyoming actually.

What do you use as a pattern ?? Something like a wooly worm, but with shorter hackle ??

The banding on the larva are very prominent (darker bands).

if anyone is interested you can do a search for them on http://www.troutnut.com.

regards,

markg[/quote]

4

I will use a fly with a dubbed body (cream or cream with a little olive mixed in) and rib with either peacock herl or light olive thread. Works fairly well, but not the secret weapon (still looking for one…).

Adam

5

Mark-

Although this isn’t a link, Rick Hafele wrote a complete article on Watersnipe Flies (or Snipe Flies, as I believe he referred to them) in his American Angler column last year. I believe it may have been the September 2005 issue. Would recommend you chase it down, as it was extremely informative.