America's Dark Blue Sedge - Video is Awesome!

Philip J. Mancini

When I attended the Somerset Fly Tying Symposium at New Jersey last November, I had a golden opportunity to meet a lot of great people, fly tyers and fly anglers. One was Philip Mancini, a young family man who loves the arts, his fishing and his fly tying.

Philip J. Mancini, aka Fishin' Musician, is a Professional musician and storyteller, fly fisherman and fly tyer from Northeastern Pennsylvania. As a musician and storyteller, Philip performs for weddings, private parties, banquets, special events and the like. His Fishin' Musician presentations encompass music, photography and stories. He is a multi-instrumentalist who will bring a memorable experience to your event with music, spokenword and photography. You can learn more at Philip's website and comments and questions are welcome - www.LoveTheArts.com or contact him at LoveTheArts@verizon.net.

Philip and I have a common interest in the food forms that attract the attention of Old Speckles and if you follow the link at the end of this post, you will see an amazing video of a Dark Blue Sedge hatch that Philip captured in his home "bug tank" (aquarium). But I will let him tell you in his own words:

The Dark Blue Sedge - Psilotreta
This video was taken in my "Bug Tank" at 5am, one Friday morning. As I was preparing my wife's coffee and my morning tea, I walked into my study to a racket of fluttering wings coming from my bug tank. You may ask, "A bug tank?" Yes, I keep a bug tank in my study. I use it to observe insects for photography and study. I took video of this event for an hour, as the evening's hatch was winding down and have created this video presentation for my speaking engagements and your enjoyment.

The Psilotreta is a well known hatch in the eastern United States and happens around the same time as our famous Green Drake Ephemera guttulata hatch, mid May through June. Both have peak emergences at dusk to early evening. The larvae have a two year cycle, are cased in a small rock and mineral case, burrow into the silt or gravel and are size 8-10. Their body colour is green with a black head having two dark red stripes.

The Cased Larva of the Dark Blue Sedge

Pupae are size 12-14, have a green body and swim to the surface to hatch.

Dark Blue Sedge Nymph

As adults, their body is greyer in colour; the male has some green in the abdomen. The females will fly upstream skipping off the water until they are ready to drop their dark green egg sac - when they land to release it. As adults, their size is 12-14.

Dark Blue Sedge Wet
All photography & flies by Philip Mancini

LINK TO VIDEO

I've got to tell you this, I have watched it a number of times and I can't help get over the amount of false runs these caddis make towards the surface to escape out into our world! I hope you enjoy the show.
Mick

Brown-eyed Blue Leptophlebiid Dun

Brown-eyed Blue Dun

For the past month I have been studying the emergence of the Mayflies on our Rubicon River, about ten minutes from my home. Each morning I have visited the same section of water to photograph what has come off that morning or the night before. The summer periods are always difficult because of high temperatures, sometimes around 40 plus degrees Celsius. Because of this some of our mayfly species actually come off in the cool over night.

Some of our Australian mayflies are around all season whilst others only for a short while and this can vary from region to region. Hatch charts, if you can call them that, are mostly compiled from observation and a lot of guessing. The only authority that I know that gets it right every time is Mother Nature and you really have to work hard to get all the information you need from her.

In Australia we are so far behind the eight ball when it comes to being able to easily identify the bulk of our 113 species of Mayfly (that figure could be closer to 200). Our scientists are still recording what they have found and grouping and re-grouping at such a rate it is difficult to keep up with them. So be it, we will have to wait.

With that aside, I have been able to watch a constant emergence of four species and another that has only been around for a couple of weeks. To the fly fisher they would be loosely grouped into what I call the mini Mayflies, being from size 18 through to 14 standard hook size and not including the little Baetids which are also around that size grouping.

They all belong to the Leptophlebiidae family. The tally is little Black Duns (two species), the Honey Dun, the Devonshire Dun and a new one which I call the Brown-eyed Blue Dun.

Honey Dun Male

Devonshire Dun Male

Black Dun Female

Little Black Dun Male

The fact is I cannot find any scientific literature to assist with identification down to genus or species but at a guess, I would place them all within the Leptophlebiidae family.

For those who are a little unsure of how to tell the difference between Baetids and Leptophlebiids, the quick answer is simple; Baetids have two tail filaments and what looks like small, deformed secondary wings. The males have turban shaped eyes whilst the Leptophlebiids have three tail filaments, larger well formed secondary wings and rounded eyes on the male, whilst the females' eyes are shaped like a hammer head shark's head with the eyes off to the sides.

To be honest I have not seen the little brown-eye blue before and that could be my fault. The answer could easily be that I have not been on the water when it emerges, or I have missed it because it seems to come off in small numbers. The true answer to this question will only take time to reveal. The more you watch the more you learn.

Brown-eyed Blue Dun Spinner Male

Brown-eyed Blue Dun Female

The male has these brilliant, rich tan eyes as does its spinner, whilst the female is a little more drab and minus those brown eyes. A size 16 hook would match it well. They have beautiful pale speckled tails and, coupled with that pale dusty blue coloured body, it really is a magnificent looking Mayfly.

I have always thought that the Blue Duns, be they olives or whatever, normally belong to the Baetid family. Well old Mother Nature has thrown another curve ball and opened up another chapter.

Happy New Year!

Long live fluff-chuckin'!
Hope you all have a great 2010!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Oz!

To all our international friends, Christmas 'Down-Under' is a summertime thing; families will congregate in parks or on beaches for a BBQ lunch, or in the family home with the traditional roast. But times change and more and more we see the turkey replaced with plates of seafood. This change of cuisine really seems to be more favorable to our climate. Being an island nation, seafood is in abundance and what the Americans call shrimp, we call prawns and they're huge! Scallops (not slices of potato!), lobster and calamari are just easy-to-obtain delicacies. It was stated on our morning News this week that the Sydney market expects to sell around 1.6 million oysters alone for the Christmas break.

Extra cold beer and red and white wines are the beverages of choice, all taken in copious amounts! So, sit back and think of us while you're sipping your egg-nog or your Gluhwein around a cosy fire and raise your glasses to us poor buggers Down-Under who have to tolerate 30C (80F) heat, as we struggle to throw another Prawn on the barbie! At home we dress in shorts, Ts and flip-flops and on the beach, Speedos (budgie-smugglers).

Anyhow, all of that bulldust aside, we wish you a wonderful season and blessings for 2010 and beyond!

Cheers,
Mick & Alaine

Beer & Bees

Nothin' like a nice, cold Vic on a hot day

sitting under the Grappa Grotto.

The Trophy Trout of the Mastallone River in Italy

Fabrizio Gajardoni

It often surprises me when people ask if there are Trout in Italy; well, there are a bit more than you think. The Italians are a little short-on when it comes to bulk rivers but what they have, they love. I think you will find the following story amazing at just how good it can get on some waters north of Tuscany and if you are ever over that way, don't leave that fly rod at home.

Mick

Fabrizio Gajardoni writes:

The following notes are from my dear friend Roberto Nera who invited me for fishing on the beautiful Mastallone River in Italy. We had great fun together fishing for some days here; great fish and fights with Trout and Dolly Varden. I want to thank Roberto for giving me the opportunity to be his friend.

Flyfishing on Mastallone River - Written by Roberto Nera

The Mastallone River is one of the best rivers for fly fishing in the North of Italy.


It flows from the Monte Rosa mountain group in the wonderful Val Sesia valley. The history and tradition of flyfishing in Italy was born in this valley many centuries ago. The traditional fly fishing style here is very old and in particular, the anglers here used long bamboo rods with no reel and long braid lines made with the tails of male horses.

The flies used here are also very special ones, generally spider flies tied in red, grey, yellow and purple colours with a soft hackle of partridge or nocturnal birds. For many centuries the fishermen of the Val Sesia valley have caught grayling, brown trout and big marble trout this way and until today this flyfishing traditional style still survives.

Above: Roberto Nera



Some years ago two fly fishermen friends, Roberto Nera and Marco Feliciani, with local Consorzio della Val Mastallone, started the management of part of the Mastallone River, named "La SELVA" Reserve. With their flyfishing experiences and the knowledge that they have gained around the world, the two friends saw the possibility to create in Italy something similar to the more famous Slovenia or Austria reserves where the fly fishing tradition is deeply embedded in their history.

In the Mastallone River there is a large population of brown, leopard, rainbow and big marble trout. There is also the presence of some grayling that are believed to move up from the Sesia River.

Above: Roberto Nera

Mastallone River

Every year the river is stocked with trout from selected farms. The future project is to stock the river only with wild trout progeny collected from this source. These fish will be harvested at a new hatchery, created especially for this purpose, in the valley.

The Mastallone is a fantastic alpine river characterized by runs and deep pools with the presence of various insects and during the year it's easy to see many big hatches of mayfly, caddis and stonefly.

Fabrizio

Particular attention must be given to the stonefly hatches between May and the end of September. There are particular hatches of the large stoneflies, called by the local angler in dialect language, "Stavacche".

These big flies characterize the fishing in the river, with the possibility to catch big trout on large dry flies, attractors like stoneflies, stimulators and big terrestrials.

Fly fishing is also very good with spiders and dry flies during the ephemera hatches and the pale grey and light olive colours are the most successful choice for catching trout.

Nymph fishing is also very successful here, with the use of large nymphs during the spring season, gradually reducing the size to small ones in the summer and fall seasons.


Streamer fishing is also very productive here, especially with little dirty water and it's possible to catch the large marble trout that stay in the deeper pools and under the big rocks.

The Mastallone River gives the fly fisherman the opportunity to use all the techniques that he prefers, passing from one to another during the day.

Leopard Trout

The valley is not only interesting from a fishing point of view, in fact there are many beautiful places under the mountains and small villages to visit, where many typical restaurants give the fisherman the opportunity to eat typical genuine food and drink a very good red wine.

Roberto and Fabrizio

The Mastallone River is easy to reach from Milano and Torino and gives a great opportunity to a fly fisherman visiting Italy to have good fun and relax, fishing to large trout in a wild valley with a very long fly fishing tradition.

REALLY OLD FLIES

Circa 1862 from a fly wallet that accompanied the sixth edition of Alfred Ronalds' 'Fly-Fisher's Entomology'

Many years ago I purchased a sixth edition of The Fly-Fishers' Entomology, Alfred Ronalds, 1862. The reason I was keen to pay around one hundred dollars more than its market value at the time was because secreted between its pages were three very old flies. The book store owner, whom I knew well, told me that the history behind the flies was that they were placed in the book by its original owner and they were very old then.


Well, that is the story from the family who owned this book when they sold it off with a number of other works at the time. The story they told was that their Great-Grandfather brought it out from England in the very late 1800s and it had been handed down to them. Good salesman, or a true story, I don't know but those flies had been sitting in that book for a very long time. You can easily see the rust and gut impressions they have left on the pages. Take note of the bottom fly, No.31 Dark Mackerel, as it is not unlike one of those set between these pages.



Can you just imagine how that old fly tyer would feel knowing that his flies are now featured on a website in Australia nearly two hundred years or more after they were tied?

Just think of the things he would not know about; Websites, The House of Hardy, Graphite fly rods, breathe-able waders, plastic bags or mobile phones, or telephones for that matter and on that list would go. But I think the first thing that would come into his mind is that he must have tied them well to last so long.

I suppose the reason for posting this topic is to see if there is any older out there. At a guess, by the style of the tying, I would say these flies were around the very early 1800s, maybe even earlier. The big question is; if you have older, please forward a picture and I will gladly post it on this blog.