Does an abundance of water spiders indicate a low brookie population? Wondering if there is any correlation for scouting purposes.

Fished a Class A headwater on Friday and did poorly compared to the same stream last fall. Maybe the low water, sunshine, and lack of foilage hurt a bit, but there were water spiders everywhere...wasn't the case last fall. Maybe it's just the time of year, but other streams that I've checked out that are void of fish had spiders all over the water.

Chuck

I'm not sure. There was this one brookie stream I fished that seemed to have more chubs and dace than trout, and there were a ton of water spiders. The creek was very low too. All of the other better streams I fished I rarely found any(but I wasn't really looking either).

I don't think there is any correlation.

I recall reading somewhere that water spiders are repulsive tasting to fish, thats why they do not eat them. So no correlation.

Actually different habitat requirements between trout, especially brook trout, and water skaters is probably the correlation.

BTW, I assume you mean water skaters, the spidery-looking bug that moves along the surface of the water, because there is a distinct species called water spiders that are true spiders that live in and under the water.

Water skaters prefer slow, slack water where the temps get well above 70 degrees. This is hardly favorable brook trout water so yes this could be the reason why when you observe lots of water spiders there are not many trout because the stream is more of a warm water fishery than a cold water fishery.

I thought they were called water striders.

Anyway, I see them frequently when fishing good brookie streams, including in cold, clean water. However, they are usually in sidewater areas and such, basically stillwater. They almost never seem to be in the main current channel. So while they may inhabit the same stream, usually the holding locations are far different.

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As did I and that's what I've been calling them since I was a kid throwing stones at them in the polluted creek we used to catch crayfish and minnows out of.

Water Striders exlude a chemical that to fish is very bad tasting. reason you do not see any fish feeding on them or around them. Think about it have you ever seen minnows or sunfish hanging around them..I find striders in class "A" streams near the cold headwaters along with lower down but never a fish near them in a pool. They will share a pool but the trout will be in another area of the pool.

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Me too.

Do bats eat them? In many areas we have many less bats in recent years.

Bats have a disease( iWhite-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a poorly understood disease associated with the deaths of at least 5.7 million to 6.7 million North American bats. The condition, named for a distinctive fungal growth around the muzzles and on the wings of hibernating bats, was first identified in a cave in Schoharie County, New York, USA, in February 2006. It has rapidly spread and as of spring 2010, the condition had been found in over 115 caves and mines ranging mostly throughout the Northeastern US and as far south as North Carolina and west to Missouri and into four Canadian provinces. In recent years and we have been losing them, and no they eat flying insects at night..

Ed Shenk's book "Fly Rod Trouting" has a whole chapter devoted to the skaters and fishing their imitations. He seemed to have good luck with it. I've never seen or heard of his "skater" flies anywhere else though.

>>Ed Shenk's book "Fly Rod Trouting" has a whole chapter devoted to the skaters and fishing their imitations. He seemed to have good luck with it. I've never seen or heard of his "skater" flies anywhere else though.>>

I've4 not seen Shenk's book, but it occurs to me that there are "skaters' and then there are skaters. There are the insects under discussion here and then there is an entire class of older, more traditional dry flies that were always called "skaters". These were mayfly imitations for the most part that were tied with grossly over sized hackles and no wings so they could be "skated" across the surface of a pool to imitate a skittering insect.
Here is one variety, the "Neversink Skater": http://www.danica.com/flytier/apodell/neversink_skater.htm

There are a bunch of other skater patterns as well. All of them, other than peripherally or incidentally, have anything to do with water skaters/striders.

Might it be that these are the sorts of imitations Shenk is writing of? He'd be more than old enough to be of the generation that tied, favored and popularized this particular design of fly.

Have not read Shenk's book either but I'm quite certain he is referring to the dry flies you describe RLeeP. Way over-sized hackles to facilitate "skating" them across the surface. Charlie Fox wrote of them too.

Here's another thread on water striders from a few years back.