Pyramid Lake Beetles

[gene goss]

I'm looking for some info. on the beetles of Pyramid Lake?
I have never seen a beetle in the water at Pyramid Lake, the only beetle i seen was at the Reno fly shop, they had one in a jar to look at.
I found this info. on Predaceous diving beetle.... http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...-diving-beetle

[Darian]

Interesting description. They're large too (up to 1.4" in length). Not sure if there're any beetles in Pyramid lake either. I've never seen any but that doesn't mean much of anything. I've always wondered whether there were any aquatic snails up there. aside from the alkaline water, there's plenty of places where they could thrive.

Other than the profile, few of the beetle fly patterns used up there resemble anything close to a beetle, snail or pollywog.

[Troutstalker55B]

Gene,

I know very little when it comes to the bugs at Pyramid, as you may remember I chose to pursue my studies/fishing at Eagle Lake instead. The beetles of Eagle Lake are the Mormon Creeping Water Bug (family Naucoridae) shown below. Since both lakes were connected long ago by way of the ancient Lake Lahontan it could be the same beetle. The MCWBs at Eagle are very prolific and have been found in the bellies of the trout in both spring and fall. They are very hard to imitate as an artificial because of how thin they are. Their movement in the water is also very hard to copy as well, they swim in loops and turns all the while with a twitchy action. I've done best with smaller wiggle tails with a snub of a tail in peacock. I'm now interested in just what beetle exist at Pyramid!

[JJ]

Gene,

I was fishing at Pyramid Lake and had a few beetles swim by my ladder. I put one on my stripping basket and took a couple of pictures. I hope that this helps you.

Jeff

[Troutstalker55B]

JJ,

Thanks for sharing your pics. I think the specimens you found are the Green Stink Bug a non aquatic bug which leaves me scratching my head and thinking "blow in feed?" from the wind. Out of all the Pyramid lake experts on the board here I got to believe somebody has more data and pics on the subject. Anybody?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We have the full selection of Pyramid Lake fly patterns from Umpqua developed by the Reno Fly Shop at our fly shop now.

[Darian]

Did a cursory search for info about aquatic bugs in Pyramid Lake. The only aquatic insects referred to were crustaceans and dragonflies....

[Troutstalker55B]

Found this on the Creeping Mormon Water Bug at Pyramid Lake from the book "Fishes and Fisheries of Nevada". Lots of other cool info as well; http://books.google.com/books?id=oGa...ed=0CDoQ6AEwAQ

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Here a a few pics of a beetle I found crawling around the rocks at Pelican last spring. The lake is filled with small bleached out snail shells and most of the beaches have these shells along the shore. I have witnessed the predacious diving beetle at Pyramid on many occasions and their coloring is more of a brownish tan. With all of that said, I don't believe the fish are "keying" in on a hatch as much as seeing something moving in their domain and attacking it. Apex predatory response kind of thing.

Jay

[Troutstalker55B]

Here a a few pics of a beetle I found crawling around the rocks at Pelican last spring. The lake is filled with small bleached out snail shells and most of the beaches have these shells along the shore. I have witnessed the predacious diving beetle at Pyramid on many occasions and their coloring is more of a brownish tan. With all of that said, I don't believe the fish are "keying" in on a hatch as much as seeing something moving in their domain and attacking it. Apex predatory response kind of thing.

Jay

Thanks for your insight Jay!