Crane fly life cycle

[jeremymcon]

I was on kish creek today, and saw an occasional emerging insect. At first I thought they were tan caddis, but every bug I could catch looked like a crane fly to me. Long dark legs, thin body. My question is: Do aquatic crane flies emerge from the surface of the water? Or maybe there were some caddis or something and I just wasn't able to catch them. I only saw a rare fish rise, so I didn't bother trying to fish any sort of dry fly. I couldn't have anyway though, since I don't have any adult crane fly imitations.

 

[sandfly]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limoniidae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipulidae

 

[jeremymcon]

Ok, so the Limoniidae are aquatic, whereas the Tupilidae are more terrestrial. But do the Limoniidae emerge from the surface of the water? Or from the shore like stone flies? Couldn't find that in the Wikipedia write ups.

 

[sandfly]

close to shore

 

[Chaz]

They sometimes crawl out on rocks and debris and hatch, but most emerge from the water near the banks. As for how to fish them use a crane fly dry, mine is an 18 and an Al's Rat, tied of the bend of the hook. Fish the pupae in the film or just under the surface.
I believe trout usually take the dries when they come back to the water to lay their eggs. The best months for crane flies seem to be April into May and September. The colors change through the year.

 

[krayfish]

We saw the mother of all cranefly egg laying flights before labor day. As we waited to take the boats out, got to talking to a guide and they said stripping the fly generates violent takes. We thought about it and had 5-6 fish take it as we stripped in line to re-cast. I'll file that rid bit away in case we see something like that in the future.