Water striders

[wgmiller]

Made a trip to the Donegal Creek this morning and saw several fish rise to take food off the surface. I looked around for a while to see what was moving/hatching and the only thing I saw were water striders. Would it be safe to say that the trout were rising to the striders?

I tossed a PMX dry fly because it was kind of "leggy" like a strider, but didn't have any luck. It could have been the fly but a more logical explantation would have been my presentation or lack thereof.

What's a good water strider fly?

 

[Padraic]

pp 204-5 of Tom Rosebauer's The Orvis Guide to Prospecting for Trout discusses water striders. He says they are inedible for trout, being hard as pebbles.

 

[salmonoid]

Only as a last resort will trout eat them. I found a small brookie stream this summer that was mostly dried up. The one pool that held about half a dozen trout had zero water striders on it, so I think the trout ate them, because I know I saw striders there last year.

Interestingly enough, on this same trip this summer, my friend and I were watching water striders on a pool and he flicked a house fly that he had swatted into the pool. The water striders skittered over and began to ate it. I always wondered what they ate; now I know.

 

[ryguyfi]

I have also heard from several resources that water striders are inedible. Most likely if you can't see what the fish are feeding on it's either something just below the surface, or very small. Try tossing a size 22 or 24 griffiths gnat next time and see if you get hooked up.

 

[PaulG]

I have to go with inedible, I have never seen a trout eat one... must be like me trying to eat liver!

PaulG

 

[Stone_Fly]

I don't know about inedible, but trout don't eat water striders. Throughout the fall trout take the dominant bugs on the surface, this stuff happens to be terrestrials. Wind blows a lot of stuff into the water and trout key in to this, mostly ants, but beetles, worms, crickets and hoppers are the dominant species. Hatches through the fall tend to be on the sparse side, but caddis will hatch in good numbers and so will BWO's. Don't overlook the spinners of mayflies.

 

[afishinado]

FYI, from the attached article:

"Take water striders, or water skippers as some call them, for example. Just about any pond or quiet pool will have these masters of surface tension skating across the surface looking for small insects trapped in the surface film. Some refer to them as “Jesus” bugs for having mastered the art of walking on water. These little fellows have taken the idea of being light on your feet to the extreme. Like many other Hemiptera they posses stink glands that release a foul liquid when something tries to make them dinner. As a result even trout have learned to let them skate directly overhead unharmed."

http://www.laughingrivers.com/rick-waterboatmen.html

 

[Sparse_Grey_Hack]

I was often perplexed at these insects scooting across calm pools that always seemed to get away with murder. One time, i dropped a midge near them and saw them approach with caution. So I always figured they ate insects.

I remember one tough day. The trout were not cooperating at all. I was sitting on the shore staring at this pool, perplexed. I could see trout in there but they completely ignored anything I came up with. I noticed some striders scooting about on the surface. I tied on a skater and cast it across the pool. As soon as it hit, I began pulling it back towards me. It did a good job of skating across the surface. A nice trout made a wake toward it and took a swat at it. He felt the tang of the hook point but I missed him. I really thought I was onto something here so I fished that skater for another hour or so. But nothing happened. It was just one of those one-shot deals.

 

[MKern]

When I was younger, I used to fish for chubs in the creek in front of my parents' house. I would stand really still, as to not stir up any silt. And on more than one occassion those skinin water striders would chomp down on my legs. Not the most pleasant bite.
As a side not...I used to get even by heading down with my bb gun and would spend hours taking aim at them. Killed quite a few doing this --- went through a lot more bb's though.

 

[ryanh]

"Like many other Hemiptera they posses stink glands that release a foul liquid when something tries to make them dinner. "

If someone is good enough to make me dinner I try to hold it till I'm outside!!!