Feature Articles

Marjan Fratnik and the History of the F-fly by Fish1

Guest author Tomaž Modic shares this piece about the history of the "F-fly," a simple but extremely effective fly pattern little known in the states but very popular in its country of origin, Slovenia, and elsewhere in Europe. Read more...

Uncle Joe - The "Original Troutnut" by Troutnut

Some recently uncovered stories show why my Great Uncle Joe was the "Original Troutnut," among other adventurous titles. Read more...

An Isonychia Nymph Emerging by Troutnut

As I prepared to set foot for the first time in the Catskills' storied Esopus Creek, I noticed an Isonychia bicolor nymph crawling out onto a rock at my feet. I pulled out my handy little camera and started snapping pictures. Read more...

Mayfly Dun to Spinner Illustrated by Troutnut

When mayfly duns pop out of the water and fly away, they aren't yet officially "adults." They have one more step before they're ready to mate: to perch on streamside vegetation and molt one more time into the stage scientists call "imago (Imago: The sexually mature adult stage of the mayfly is called the imago by scientists and the spinner by anglers.)" and we call "spinner." This article shows step-by-step close-up photos of a Leptophlebia cupida (Black Quill) dun molting into a spinner, and it explains what's going on inside the mayfly. Read more...

A guide to photographing aquatic insects for identification by Troutnut

A guide to which features to photograph most closely to facilitate identification of aquatic insect specimens, especially those most important to fly anglers. Read more...

Reconstructing LaFontaine by Troutnut

A response to the debate in an English publication over an article entitled “Deconstructing LaFontaine” in the July issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying. Lloyd Gonzales brought the debate to my attention. I think the “Deconstructing” article was not very well done, but it raises an interesting discussion.

It points out that there hasn’t really been any verification of LaFontaine’s widely repeated notion about air bubbles forming under the outer skin of rising caddis pupae. It ends up suggesting that there is no layer of gas, but a thin layer of liquid, and that refraction of sunlight through this liquid around the edges of backlit pupae may have given the impression of air bubbles that LaFontaine reported.

I think it’s an interesting idea, but I’ve also seen how unusually buoyant caddis pupae can be despite a lack of visible bubbles. I think there’s probably something to LaFontaine's air idea.

I would like to collect and observe pupae and do some photographic experiments with backlighting versus bubbles to see how viable each idea would be. Read more...

Essential Fly Fishing Book Passages by Troutnut

This will be something like a "top ten list" of things to read. The unique angle will be that, instead of listing top ten books, or various other things based on history or a general coverage of information, I will rank the most interesting passages, including perhaps more than one per book. Read more...

The science of mayfly duns by Troutnut

This will talk about the details of the dun stage. Read more...

Why Trout Are Selective by Troutnut

This article will draw on my bionb422 final project's findings about energy requirements, what factors can't explain selectivity alone, how well information can be passed, etc. I should also read those books Nick Hughes recommended first. Read more...

Matching Mayfly Duns to Nymphs by Troutnut

Sometimes you don't need to identify an insect to figure out what its other stages look like. There are telltale characteristics which can help separate out the crawlers and burrowers at a glance as adults, at the very least, though it's hard to tell swimmers vs crawlers. Read more...

Eating Mayflies by Troutnut

Eating mayflies. (Interview friends, entomology professor, nutritionist.) This must include a disclaimer that I am not the FDA and have not certified mayflies as safe for eating, so people do so at their own risk.

This is just a good way to promote my CafePress store. Read more...

Experiments with Water Clarity by Troutnut

Article on clarity. Show pictures, under consistent lighting conditions (bright/mid-day), of several different “clarity” types of water from three angles: above the water looking straight down, above the water looking to the side, and below the water looking to the side. Should also use consistent depth (probably about knee deep) and surface form (probably a calm flat). Read more...

Complexities of Opportunistic Feeding by Troutnut

Article about selective vs opportunistic feeding, and the tendency for anglers who get really interested in entomology to treat opportunistic situations like selective ones. Make the point that when trout are feeding opportunistically, it’s better to show them attractors (Attractor: Flies not designed to imitate any particular insect, but to incorporate characteristics attractive to trout. When trout aren't feeding selectively, attractors often outperform careful imitations as searching patterns because they are easier to see and incorporate more strike-triggering characteristics. They include legends like the Adams, Bivisible, and Royal Wulff.) that take advantage of their present mood than to show them imitations of the last thing they were feeding selectively to. Introduce concepts that give often-overlooked complexity to attractor (Attractor: Flies not designed to imitate any particular insect, but to incorporate characteristics attractive to trout. When trout aren't feeding selectively, attractors often outperform careful imitations as searching patterns because they are easier to see and incorporate more strike-triggering characteristics. They include legends like the Adams, Bivisible, and Royal Wulff.) pattern selection and help take the randomness out of it... expand on the principles of Dry Fly: New Angles. Read more...

Insects on the Rocks by Troutnut

Article debunking the idea that turning over a rock will tell you what fly to use, because pretty much anything that can cling to a rock when you lift it out of the water is pretty darn good at staying on that rock. Read more...

Water Color and Fly Color by Troutnut

A study of the effect of water color on the color of a fly as seen by the trout. Should include underwater photos from streams themselves, since one of the main effects of water color will be the wavelength of the light scattering below to strike the fly from an angle where it'll go to the fish. Can't really replicate that in a lab. Read more...

Do Trout Seek Fast Water for Oxygen? by Troutnut

Article investigating the idea that trout seek riffles during the summer because the water’s more oxygenated. It doesn’t make sense in many contexts to which anglers apply it. Read more...

Angler's Guide to Scientific Literature on the Web by Troutnut

Talk about how useful scientific papers are and the ways to access them through university libraries, other sources, etc. Read more...

Translucency in Fly Tying by Troutnut

Many of the insects the trout eat are not opaque; their color looks different based on what they’re being seen against. The options are to think about what angle the fish will approach the fly from, what color the backdrop will be, and consequently the apparent color of the fly, or else to simulate the translucency of the real thing in our fly so that it changes color appropriately with the background, just like the real thing. Read more...

The Mayfly's Place in Insect Evolution by Troutnut

Write something about exaptation in evolution: the wing in insects evolved from ancestral gills, which remain gills in mayfly nymphs. Read more...

The Method to my Madness by Troutnut

Many people ask me many questions about how I created this website. Here's a peek at the inner workings of Troutnut.com, from the bug collecting to database programming to everything in between: photography, research, and more. Read more...