Cool Spring Creek, Mercer County, 2/10/13...also need hatch identified

[fishingnoob]

Went to Cool Spring today hoping to have a great day in the water with the higher temp. Ended up not being all that I thought it would be. Got to the stream at about 11:30 and saw that it still had a good covering of ice, and also to my surprise it was VERY shallow, only about 2 feet deep. For the first 45 minutes I was just trying to break up the ice. I started down by the ripples where the water was clear of ice and walked upstream breaking 10-20 foot sections by walking/breaking the ice from the middle of the stream to the far bank. Once I got the breaks going other sections started to follow and made the job easier. Soon enough I had the section from the big rock all the way to the ripples cleared. As for the fishing however I got nothing. I think I had a few bites but I'm not sure if it was a bite or if I was snagging drifting ice. The sun was out during the day but never got a chance to touch the stream due to clouds rolling in around 2:30.

Now onto my hatch question. These guys were all over the place on the bank and could be seen easily on the snow. I took a picture as seen below and tried to figure out what it was but I figured let you guys have some fun guessing.

 

[Maurice]

Little black stonefly

 

[Fishidiot]

At last....a harbinger of spring (and none too soon).

 

[afishinado]

Noob,

IDing specific species of insects is rather difficult, but learning to ID types (orders) of insects is very basic and easy. Here is a link to a primer to ID insect types:

http://www.troutu.com/class/identifyinfg_aquatic_insects

 

[stal42]

welcome, mr stonefly 🙂

 

[dryflyguy]

Not surprised to hear about all of ice you found despite yesterdays warmup - it was very cold friday and saturday.
I'm off today and had some thoughts about going out for the first time this year. But I'm going to wait a little longer - ice fishing is best done with tip ups IMO

 

[fishingnoob]

thanks afishinado, I'll definitely take advantage of that site. Dryflyguy, it really was a pain in the ***....breaking off all those sections to clear the stream took a lot of time and effort and I actually have a decent bruse on my left thigh from it. Hearing the sheets break apart as they drifted downstream was kinda cool though. However all of it was for naught because I didn't get any fish :/