SULFUR??????
Frost on their noses, snow clods on their backs and ice on their eyelashes this morning told me that I was probably not going fishing today. My Miniature horses(about 500lbs each), were snorting and bucking when I went to feed them this AM. Their fur, thick as a wooly mammoths, is apparently keeping them nice and toasty this winter as they showed no signs of being cold.
…..Me on the other hand was just fine heading back into the house and throwing another log into the wood burning stove. The burn of the morning air and the sting of cold water splashed onto my exposed skin left me with no desire to slip out and wet a line in my local waters. 6 days since the opener and not one cast to a trout! I must be getting soft. Next week there might be a warm up.
Lets talk dry flies, hatches, summer stuff. I feel warm already. This week, a friend of mine who makes his way up here once a year along with a gang of other fine and dignified gentlemen asked this question;
Hello! I hope that all is well and you’re prospering in this cold winter (at least, compared to some recent years). I write with a question about sulphur hatches on the Rush. Those of us who gather for “Sulphurpalooza” will soon decide on dates for the 2017 gathering. Each member of the group seems to have a differing opinion about when sulphurs are likely, but my opinion is “we don’t know squat”. Hence, my missive to you…
If you were to peg dates on when sulphurs are at or near their peak in a completely average year, what would those dates be? I fully realize that spring weather and temperatures have a huge impact on dates of emergence. But, we might as well choose dates somewhere near the peak of the “bell-shaped curve”. You are about the only person whose opinion I would have confidence in!
Many thanks for your advice. When the blessed event actually happens, I hope to see you yet again around the dining table and campfire.
Cheers,
Rex
Greetings Rex
Great to hear from you. I have completed my 3 days of servitude for the week and now have time to answer you more completely
You have chosen your words carefully to let me know, you know, there are myriad of intertwining variables that must be sorted out in order to answer your question. Your request has been made in a manner to assure me that your “sulphurpalooza brothers” may be a few bricks short of a full data set and your wish is to acquire a more scientific answer to your question. I completely understand.
Here is that answer OR Skip this part and go to directly to the bottom of the page to acquire the “peak sulphur emergence dates in a completely average year”.
According to and in general Malcolm Knopp and Robert Cormier 1997 in Mayflies-An Angler’s Study of Trout Water Ephemeroptera, W. Patrick McCafferty 1981 in Aquatic Entomology–The Fishermen’s and Ecologists’ Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives and Gaylord Schanilek 2005 thriller, MAYFLIES of the Driftless Region, the term “sulphur” has been applied to or associated with numerous species of mayflies. Some have been scientifically classified….. Some have been classified, argued about, then reclassified. In the end there are very few laymen who can positively identify these mayflies. Further more, I am not certain entomologists are 100% in agreement on some classifications.
The use of the word sulphur(a common name) has created a goat rodeo in angling lingo and few in the angling world have been able to sort it out. From my experience, this loose fitting term has been used to describe the species; infrequens, inermis, excrucians, needhami, dorothea, invaria and rotunda just to name a few. Some are located in this region, some are not. Some species referred to as sulfurs in this region are probably happy , healthy and scheduled to emerge at their designated time. Some were once here and are now ghosts. Some insect populations only remain in remnant numbers and no longer cause trout to stalk the surface water. For my entire angling history, the word sulphur has been used to describe a number of different mayflies. I have just about given up on discussing it with others because half way through the conversation I realize they are talking about a different insect. SO I LUMP. In all these years I am not absolutely certain I have made definitive identification of any one bug I call sulphur. I have found great variability in some of the hatches I have experienced on our local waters. Many of these hatches are compound/complex hatches containing 2 or 3 different species of mayflies. Oh, and lets not forget the yellow craneflies that also have been referred to as sulfurs by so many anglers. SO I LUMP. To make it simpler. I lump the group into the light colored flies of summer.
Through my eyes In the last 6-8 years there has been change to the light colored flies of summer or sulfurs, Sulphurs, sulfers, if you will. In the areas where I have fished them for the last 20 years the rivers, insects and populations have changed. Nature is showing off her ability to be dynamic. For years I would watch the development of the Dames Rockets in the valleys and wait for the emergence of the sulfur mayflies. I had no idea these plants were invasive until I popped open this link. These plants were my reminders, my indicators, that dry fly fun was about to begin. In the places where I fish the sulfur imitations, populations have dwindled. The beautiful plants and pleasant fragrance remain in my fondest memories of fishing and place. Although the plants remain, blooming during the same period, the mass flight of mayflies no longer occurs above some of these waters. No longer does the water boil with greedy trout.
Make no mistake, the fish are still there. The habitat looks the same. It is only the massive hatches of insects that for the most part are missing. This fact reminds me that once again change is. I know to expect it. I chill, and move on to find the next honey hole or honey hatch.
We as anglers have expectations. These expectations are rooted in our past experiences. We want definitives and the ability to form patterns and repeat….. With Angling, repeating makes it easier to achieve the same results and create better fish stories.
According to my notes, logs and blogs from the past, the peak emergence times for the sulfurs in a broad sense would be from May 20 through June 20th. In a narrow sense somewhere between the first and second week of June.
A prediction for an emergence of Sulphurs on the Rush or any local river is no longer possible for me to give you. My attempt to hit this hatch or hatches in the last few years has been unpredictable at best after 20 years of reasonable predictability. My sense is that these mayfly populations may be on the low side and may never cycle back,,,, who knows???? Something else may take their place??
REX
Sorry for not being much help. Food, Fire and Fishing is always good when you are around quality people. Let me know when you set the date.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE SULFURS??
10 users commented in " Fn’ Cold and Dreaming of Sulphurs "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI have kept track of said emergence for many years on said streams and if I were to pick it would be the first week of June if you are trying to catch the evening sulphur. A week earlier if you are looking for the daytime pmd like sulphur on the lower kinni. A week later if you are hoping for a combo of evening sulphurs and march browns.
The fact that there are any mayflies left in the Rush after the huge floods of the last few years is amazing by itself. That being said there were very strong “Sulphur” hatches last year during the first week of June.
Jaybird
Thanks for weighing in on the subject.
Fishsk
We have been getting some water through that shed the last few years haven’t we. looks like we are all in the same time frame.
Thanks for the feedback.
With the storms and water we’ve had the last few years it’s hard to predict good fishing, much less good fishing to a particular hatch, for any week in the new season. Jaybird’s weeks are good, but what if we’re in flood stage? The obvious answer is to carry rods from 3wt to 7wt, and more than a hundred patterns and sizes of flies, and use what works when you get to the stream. I like to fish a dry fly as well as anybody. And then I’ve had days in sulphur time when a 7wt rod and four inch long streamers were the only answer, and a good answer, for the stream conditions.
Andy,
I’ve always thought the “Sulfurs” were members of the Ephemerellas (shoulder bump on hind wing). Light Hendrickson, Pale morning Dun, Pale afternoon Dun, Pale evening Dun, Sulfur, etc. were all basically interchangeable names for the yellowish/tan/light olive/orangish mayflies that tend to hatch in the May to June timeframe.
JL
Yes you are correct. If I have lead you to believe anything different I apologize. To maybe clarify; It is the use of one term(sulfur) to identify many of the different species of Ephemerellas that makes it sometimes difficult to answer a very simple question. When is the peak of the sulfur hatch? You may be talking about a Light Hendrickson and I am talking about a pale evening dun. These two insects hatch at different times but many anglers call them both by the same name,,,, sulfurs. Clarity becomes cloudy.
I shall now put the worms back in the can I opened.
P
It is so. We Must adapt to prosper. I am going fishing.
Let’s not forget the effects of Big Ag and modern farming practices on hatches, particularly the rampant use of pesticides that make their way into watersheds and have detrimental effects on aquatic insects, especially mayflies. While different watersheds (and there are many differing factors and characteristics in SE MN vs. Western Wisco streams), Trout Run and the Middle Branch of the Whitewater are prime examples. Both used to have timely and prolific hatches of White Hendricksons that would last a couple weeks. They are completely gone on Trout Run and, as of late, been spotty at best on the Middle Branch. This used to be one of the hatches that an angler could set their clock to, so to speak. This hatch-crash coincides with the vast increase in use of modern pesticides and farming practices. The correlation between the two is more than coincidental. The influx of these chemicals into the Rush and Kinni watersheds could be beginning to take their toll on the white/tan/light mayfly hatches much more so than flooding.
Tom
Thank you for opening another can of worms. Apparently we like worms here at the goat.
With garded anxiety I believe there is probably truth to your statements. As an environmentalist I wish it was not the case. On numerous occasions I fear the perfect storm of not only agricultural but residential and commercial fertilizers and pesticides have played a part in affecting the health of our cold water resources. And for that matter, warm water resources too. Issues like this are so complex and difficult if not impossible to document. Mostly it is not a malicious or willful attempt to degrade the environment it is just our short sighted, ignorant, self centered and greedy approach to maintaining what we all have created instead of acting with forethought.
Leave A Reply