Lower Sac hatches

[Bkane]

Maybe it’s just a natural cycle like global warming but this year I have not seen any baetis hatches. Usually, starting in November,with the first rains,they start popping and continue for at least a couple of months. I’ve speculated that possibly the runoff from the Keswick area after the fires last summer may be toxic to buglife. Maybe it’s just my section of the river. I’d love to hear from others that bugs have been seen in other areas in numbers to bring fish up. I wonder if there are some agencies that monitor or actually care about possible toxins in the streambed. I guess current federal agencies are not inclined to investigate considering the general direction that the EPA is going.

[Troutstalker55B]

The first aquatic insect to throw the red flag when there is degraded water quality is the stone fly, their populations and health are diminished first. I can't tell you about the Lower Sac, but on the Yuba we have had strong BWO hatches for months along with Pinkies, PMDs, and now Skwala stones. I have no idea at this time why your not seeing the blue wings, but I will say this - Aquatic insects are very resilient, and have been for eons. I'm interested to find out what the scoop is. - J.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I kind of think about February on a foggy day for Baetis on the Lower American River and the Lower Yuba River.

[Garrett S]

You are correct in noting we haven't had the robust BWO hatches this winter like we had last year. October-December 2017 we saw huge Baetis hatches. This year they've been a little off. I don't think it has anything to do with the recent fires or toxins in the river though... but who knows. We had quite a few varieties of PMDs come off during the warmer days in December 2018 as well as BWOs just not quite the numbers that we saw the previous year.