Show Notes
Hey everyone. Here is my blog post for Episode 54: Pics and Patterns for Black Quills. First let's take a look at the nymph. Here is a nice black quill nymph with a scale in centimeters. It is hard to see, but note the length of the antennae and the nice dark wing cases. That suggests he (or she) is likely to hatch soon. (Well, if he (or she) wasn't pickled in alcohol since 2003). Also fyi, this one was collected in a pond - which make sense, they migrate from moving water to still water to hatch. In contrast, the next specimen was collected in a stream, and you'll note the lack of developed wing pads (noting it was also collected earlier in the season).
OK, here is a nice pic of a live specimen showing off those gills. Note how the first gill consists of two simple fibers. Then the following gills are those beautiful flowing gills that move so much when they are alive.
Here is a nicer picture of that first specimen showing off the gills. Of course I'm sure you are curious about the big black innertube looking thing. That is actually a rubber O-ring that you use for plumbing. I pop those in my petri dish when I'm sorting specimens to make a petri dish within my petri dish.
Before we jump into patterns, let's look at some of my feeble attempts at art. Here is what a black quill nymph should look like!
Here's my interpretation of those first gill segments.
And more interestingly, here are the other abdominal gills. Note that it is not just one leaflike gill .. each one has two gills. That helps with that feathery appearance.
OK, let's talk about some flies. In my humble opinion, this is what a black quill nymph should look like. And I'm stunned I've not seen any patterns like this. Compare this fly to the pics. It is even more dramatic when you are looking at a live nymph and comparing it to a video of the fly in moving water. Unfortunately, I don't think I can upload a video in this blog. There must be a way - I should figure that out.
Eric's Black Quill Nymph
Thread: Brown Hook: 9672 size 12 or 10 or equivalent. Tail: Drake Hooded Merganser flank feathers. You absolutely must use these. You cannot substitute anything else for this. Good luck finding them. I'll sell them to you for $5 a feather. OK, I popped a hooded merganser last duck season (not a lot of meat on them) - feel free to use brown dyed mallard flank Abdomen - brown dyed ostrich herl, wrapped around the hook shank. Wing case - I used turkey tail feather. I liked the mottled pattern and I had some Abdomen - red squirrel dubbing with guard hairs. Bead - 1/8 tungsten.
I've really been enjoying Euronymphing lately. It is a fun, new way to fish and most importantly, it is effective. That said, I came across this fly as an imitation of a Black Quill nymph for Euronymphing. It is a black quill, right? So it must be black. And therefore it must have a black quill body. While I'm sure this fly catches fish ... I don't think it is because it imitates a black quill nymph. Compare this pattern to the pics.
Hook: Fulling Mill FM50 27 Size 10 Bead: 1/8 tungsten black Tail: I used black rooster fibers Body: It calls for black dyed polish quills. I used a combination of stripped peacock quill and a dyed black peacock quill. I coated it with UV glue and zapped it. Thorax: Black dubbed Rabbit dubbing. Again, I'm sure this catches fish, and I'm looking forward to using it. But as a black quill?
As I pick flies to showcase, I often choose to select from several of the books I own. I've picked two for this round. Tony Hellekson's book - Fish Flies an Encylopedia of the Fly Tier's Art. It delivers. 719 pages of more flies than you could possibly need. The second book I chose is from is an obscure western "book" called The Fly-Fisher's Manual by Kenn M. Ligas. I love this book. It is more of a binder with plastic folder sheets in it. Must have cost a fortune to produce and market. He had some kind of deal with Scintilla dubbing, so all his
More from Angler's Entomology Podcast
A discussion of metamorphosis - focusing on simple metamorphosis as it relates to mayflies, stoneflies, and damsel and dragonflies. And of course rambles about the nature of change. I hope you enjoy.
Hey Everyone, Here are the pictures and patterns that are relevant to Part 1 on of metamorphosis - focusing in incomplete metamorphosis and the critters that do that. (Primarily mayflies, stoneflies and dragon and damselflies). First, though, as promised in the podcast, here is what a silverfish looks like. A little worse for wear - he's (or she) has been pickled for 8 years, so it's lost a lot of its color. Normally, they are a very silver color - hence the name. In some ways you may say this looks a little like a mayfly nymph. In real life, looking at them, you would not mistake them as being different.
Hey everyone. I hope you enjoy today's episode on black quills. I have some nice pics and patterns on the blog, so check that out too. Email me ([email protected]) if you want a guided entomology/fishing trip and get your loot at Selene's Fly Shop.
Hey folks, hope you all enjoy part 2 of our discussion about how insects reproduce. Lots of wild stuff in this. And check out the blog - I added lots of cool pictures that are relevant to both episode 51 and 53. Enjoy!
Hey folks. Normally I record an episode and then develop the blog post based on what I've said. While usually that works well, this time I fell down several rabbit holes which, quite frankly while help with understanding the episodes, don't relate to them directly. Namely, I found my old slides from 30 to 40 years ago - which include really interesting slides around histology (study of tissues) and other things. It was fun to dive into my compound microscope (for which I rarely use for insect identification) to show you some very cool stuff (like sperm cells, and chromosomes). It's also the case that while there are a million pics like this around the internet, I always like to use my own pictures - so these are from my old slides. Alright - so put on your smarty pants hat, and dig this shit. OK, first we're going to start with some shots of onion root tissue slices. Teachers love this tissue for teaching about mitosis, because if you think about it, it is growing fast, and hence you are likely to see signs of cell division. To remind you, mitosis is the bread and butter cell division - which we use for growing, healing, replacing cells, etc. This is how cells reproduce on a day to day basis.