how do they and why do they?

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i may be stupid here but i thought these two questions might be fun.

anyone who has read my stream reports knows how much i hate spiders. its hard being a wild trout nut and spend most of my fishing experince in the woods surrounded buy wood spiders, garden spiders and those wierd spooky black ones with the rocky looking back. YUCK! but it doesnt stop me from going to the stream or enjoying myself. i could fish in the meadows but the nature is so much more beautiful in the woods. spiders and all.
but i was wondering, how the heck to those little buggers get the web on the otherside of the path your on? i mean do they attach on side and they crawl down and then up the next tree? orwait for the wind to blow them and let go? how the heck to those damn spiders do it!?

also, spending time fishing pressured trout i have noticed that most these fish "soft lip" your fly. the stike is almost never explosive. but wild trout is a differnt story. on monday i had a brown leap out of the water while eating a dry. on saturday i had a brookie, that was so excited, it tried to eat my fly 3 times in one pass. he kept missing and you would have thought he was small, but when i hooked him he was 8 inches. the funny thing is i foul hooked his tail. how do these fish ever get anything in thier mouths? i have seen brookies do this so many times. they are so explosive to the fly and excited they often miss it. why are they so explosive?

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

I think if the distance is too great to leap, the spiders rely on the wind to carry them. I'm no Mary Stauffer but that would be my guess.

I agree with your take on fish that get heavy pressure. A fish in the Tully almost takes and spits the fly all in the same motion. On the Delaware, I've had to cut off some dries because the fish had been hooked deep in the throat. Both fish were fooled but one is a little more gun-shy then the other. Those little brookies are so happy to see a meal they almost throw themselves onto the bank trying to grab it. Some get it in the lip while others get it in the belly or tail. Gotta luv them though.

 

[tomgamber]

There is a lake I fish where they come parachuting in on single strands of web from the trees across the street. The distance is probably 50 yards or more. I also know what the bluegills eat. Once in a while you'll feel that web on your ear or neck an start searching quickly.

 

[sandfly]

Just remember Sal,
in those meadows are wolf spiders and along the stream are giant fishing spiders, which eat fish !!!!! :-D :-D :-D

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

thats mean! :-o :-D
once along little run i almost walked into a garden spider the size of my hand. you know the kind, grey with the orage or yellow streaks. i was walking the stream looking at the water and not where i was going. just happened to look up and between two small trees the path went between was a web that was as big as i stand tall and this monster spider. gave me the chills so bad it ended the fishing trip! :-o

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

When heading into the brush, I'll use my rod as a 'web buster'. I'm with you sal, spiders give me the willys.

 

[JF_]

I remember one time I was out for an evening archery hunt. I was walking thru the woods to where I was going to find a good tree to climb. I ran into a spider web that felt like a volleyball net, right across my face and chest. Horrible. Needless to say I saw no deer that night, because I was constantly rubbing my neck and head while I was in my stand.

If the sun is right you can see some pretty awesome webs between trees. It’s the ones you don’t see that get you.

John

 

[live2fish]

"soft lip" your fly
I call that "kissing the fly".

http://science.howstuffworks.com/spider5.htm
This web page explains how the spider makes the web.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

wow how did u find that! interesting stuff thanks for posting. i call it soft lipping because if they only kissed it i would never hook them ;-)

 

[ryanh]

I HAVE A FISHING SPIDER INFESTATION IN MY HOUSE!!!

They get your attention.

I walked into a garden spider on Spring Creek it just sat there on my chest until I threw it off. I must have put down every trout from Benner springs to Milesburg.

I moved a towmotor pallet under my proch and a wolf or fishing spider ran up my arm. I made it about 14 inches until I hit the first joist and nearly got knocked out.

 

[Chaz]

Spiders drop from one tree and kind of free fall untill they attach to something, then climb back up to a point were they can drop down again all the while spinning a web. All the while they have one thing in mind, and that is catching Sal. So they work all day so they can pull a web across the most likely trail Sal is going to be on and wait, all the while eating most of their web only to leave the one that get's in Sal's face. Once they get Sal, they methodically torment him until he cries out in frustration and faints.
BTW the part about a spider eating it's own web is true, it is high in protein. :-D
As for the trout question, my experience has been it has nothing to do with pressure how the trout rise. It has more to do with what they are taking then pressure. Fished Spring Creek the other night with a friend and we saw quite a few jumping rises from the same fish all evening. You can't find more pressured water unless its the LL. The browns were quite enthusiastic risers on Sunday evening, and I caught quite a few once I figured out what they were after. But the biggest hit so hard he broke himself off and took the fly and tippet. Augh!
So if they are smutting midges off the surface they can usually be prettiy selective, ditto may fly adults. But as darkness falls they quickly lose their inhabitions and porpoise to mayfly spinners for a long time, many times taking spinners dragger on the surface rather then a dead drift spinner. Seen this many times on the LL, in fact after dark on many of the Lehigh Valley Streams I make it a point to skim my spinners on the surface. Boy the trout hit hard when I do.
As for your trout he refused your fly and got hooked on the tail because you reacted fast to the rise and nailed him.

 

[thedude1534]

Sal, I can confirm about wild fish and hard strikes. On several occasions, I have seen some of the smaller (6-8") browns at Valley Creek jump completely out of the water when taking a fly. It looks like the footage you see of the Great Whites off the coast of South Africa, when they're striking a seal so fast that they launch themselves out of the water.

 

[FarmerDave]

ryanh wrote:
I HAVE A FISHING SPIDER INFESTATION IN MY HOUSE!!!

Don't you mean barking spiders? :-D

 

[Chaz]

I forgot, don't forget your piece, got to shoot the darn spiders. Common guys they are just spiders. They're not even bugs.

 

[Squaretail]

Last week on a fishing trip I noticed a wake eminating from the streamside bank I was on so I sneaked up until I could just see the trout and dangled my fly over his head maybe 2-3 inches and caught it on about the 4th leap. Always thought those were fun.
Always liked the one "Far side" cartoon that has the two spiders at the bottom of a sliding board that just finished building a web across it and the one says to the other "If this works, we'll eat like kings!"

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

your right chaz, there just spiders but i still hate them. been bit too many times by those guys and the right ones can make you pretty sick. not to mention the weird hybrid ones. you just never know. there not bugs.... there worse :-D

 

[FarmerDave]

I've been bitten several times in the past, too, but not many since i was a kid. They usually won't bother you as long as they don't get inside your clothing, or you accidently grab one or start squashing one. I'm not all that fond of spiders either, but I dislike deer flies and mosquitoes even more. And since spiders eat those blood suckers, they are alright by me. They still give me the creeps when I walk through a web, but what can you do. I guess I got used to them when I kept a boat docked at a lake. Every time we went there we spent the first hour or so washing the spiders off the boat. It was a fairly big boat. We used to have a problem with them getting inside, but found the no pest strips kept the inside relatively bug and spider fee.

Every morning I have to tear down part of a web on the back doorway of my garage. We are practically on a first name basis. You would think he would get tired of that and move on. He is a big nasty looking spider, too. I know he is there, so he is not a problem as long as he doesn't move indoors.

Now garden spiders are cool. Big nasty looking things with that yellow pattern on them. Awesome webs, too. If I find them up near the house, I either leave them alone, or move them to the garden. Better than pesticides. Spiders in the house? That is where I draw the line. I haven’t established a tagging program, so there is usually no second chances for those.
;-)

 

[JackM]

I remember watching a spider put the finishing touches on an elaborate web, anchored between two trees. No sooner did he finish, I unhinged it from one of the trees and it all collapsed. I swear that I heard a very faint "sonofabiiiii...."

 

[PaulG]

A few years back i was wading under some trees, when a spider dropped down on the back of my neck. Im still bother today by the itching. I hate spiders and snakes!