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Thread: Pyramid Lake Beetles

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    Fair Oaks CA
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    711

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    I have to agree with you Jay i think the floating beetle is a fishing technique.....Suspended fly... fished from the bottom.
    Last edited by gene goss; 12-12-2012 at 10:00 AM.

  2. #12

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    Yeah most of the pics in the thread thus far aren't beetles or aquatic beetles. The first one is a naucoridae, which is a hemipteran, and yes the 2nd (I think 2nd) was a stinkbug. The last picture is a scarab beetle, and is terrestrial. I'm not sure if there are specific beetles of pyramid lake, but would assume it has a pretty generalized taxa list of similar lakes in the region. A lot of the aquatic beetles are probably in a size range you'd barely notice them. For a lake I would assume most of them would be in the families hydrophilidae and dytiscidae, and in low densities exept in spring/summer in areas with lots of weeds. The only places we see these things in high densities are ponds and rice fields really, where you have warmish water that supports a huge midge/mosquitoe larval population for these beetles to eat.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Reno
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    93

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    Had the rare catch of a pulling up a big branch out there once. It was covered with clear white scuds about size 12. Two fat dragon fly nymphs were going to town on them. I've got to think that most beetles that are fished are taken for the dragon flies, especially when pulled with short strips, or maybe just random food opportunities like Jay said. Only swimming beetles I've seen have been smaller not counting all the weird bugs that get blown in.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    Truckee, CA.
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    One day, making cast after cast, stripping, stripping ect.....
    In a fifteen minute period, I snagged three dragon fly nymphs.
    You do the math, must be thousands down there...... They migrate toward shore during a short period in the Spring.
    Anyway, I didn't have one in my box.
    So I wandered up to the truck to tie one up....
    It was THE silver bullet.
    Always take the tying stuff......
    Match that hatch baby.....
    I'll dig around and see if I can find the sample vile with the bug.
    The fly was basically the pyramid beetle, larger and with rubberleggs.
    They are dorsally flattened, ambush predators, able to eat small fry.
    Far as I know they do not swim.

    The other match the hatch moment out there, was lady bug beetles.
    Better have one just in case you see fish rising in the spring....
    It was fun fishing a dry fly to the cutties.
    Good thing I had the tying stuff for that one as well.
    I had a banner day, where most others went fishless.
    Makes me think that the do follow food cycles a little.....
    I have also fished a scud and a snail pattern out there, but was not overly productive for me.


    Jim
    Last edited by bigfly; 01-04-2013 at 04:37 PM.
    Bigfly guide service helping fly fishers since 2002.
    Truckee river and Northern California waters.
    https://bigflyguideservice.wordpress.com//

    For best results, fish on the fish's schedule, not yours....

    BF

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Modesto, CA
    Posts
    16

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    Here's a few photos of some bugs I found/snagged a few years back. I think the first one is of a dragonfly nymph bigfly mentioned.

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  6. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Nevada City, Ca
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    870

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    Tom,

    Thanks for the pictures! The dragonfly nymph is of the Darner species with a longer body and a big head and they favor weeds for habitat. The other species of dragonfly in there would be a Skimmer, which has much shorter spider like body. They like rocky / sandy habitat.

    I'm stoked you have a picture of a Mormon creeping water bug that I mentioned earlier in this post. I knew they had to be in there. That is one cool bug.
    "I fish, I write, I travel, and I'm hungry for more!"
    http://jonbaiocchiflyfishingnews.blogspot.com/

    http://www.baiocchistroutfitters.com/
    The premier fly fishing guide service for the northern sierra.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Truckee, CA.
    Posts
    963

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    Jon's on it.
    Desert lakes have a barren bottom to a large extent.
    So nymphs evolved to flatten out and hide on the bottom.
    As opposed to creeping through vegetation.
    Reminded me of a crab, legs to the side more than underneath.
    They are still, the great white (if you will) of the underwater bug world.

    Jim
    Bigfly guide service helping fly fishers since 2002.
    Truckee river and Northern California waters.
    https://bigflyguideservice.wordpress.com//

    For best results, fish on the fish's schedule, not yours....

    BF

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Fair Oaks CA
    Posts
    711

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    I was looking for some info. on a floating dragonflie fly and ran across a couple of web. sites.
    http://www.danblanton.com/blog/categ...oating-dragon/
    http://www.riseformflyfishing.com/dragonflies.htm

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