Smaller Mayflies

[JUICE]

Yesterday fishing with Aaron on a tailwater, I noticed that the closer we got to the dam the smaller the mayflies nymphs were getting. Anyone know why this happens or if it's just an anomaly.

[sipper]

perhaps its because the growth periods are shorter due to the cold. kinda like bass in florida, they are bigger bcuz of shorter winters. The closer nature gets to a cold source, the smaller she becomes. It is commonly known that the further ya get from a cold outlet, the more furtile a stream becomes which is why you eventually find bass and sunnies way way down stream on the farmington. Nice talking point as it kinda raises differences that exist between the farmy and Housy. farmy and housy differ in many ways for instance. you see many more massive mayfly shucks on the housy rocks where as smaller flies seem to dominate the farmy. Where are the White flies on the farmy? What other hatches may be very different for these two extremely fertile but totally different bodies of water located only twenty minutes apart? very interesting talking point. More appropriate than the smack for sure! save the site, long live tpo!

[Magnet]

SIP,
We have been in smack down mode before and we always get back to the good stuff.

[Magnet]

SIP,
We have been in smack down mode before and we always get back to the gooyd stuff.

[Magnet]

Sorry about the redundancy. My reply sat on my phone for a couple hours after I posted so I hit it again thinking it didn't take.

[JUICE]

No problem Bob. Any thoughts on this Davy?

[mesanomad]

The first thought that came to mind to me was probability. The more mature the nymph, the more likely to be washed further downstream. Probably a dumb idea.

[Magnet]

The water at the bottom of the reservoir has very little light and is more sterile than the upper layers of water. You might also notice that the quantity of bug life is noticeably less up there as well. Could that hatch possibly be Needhami ? Also I have heard Aaron describe the Farmington as a tail water with the characteristics of a free stone. Maybe he could comment on that. I recall when Sholgate fished that section below the dam and he was amazed how cold it was up there and how different the river is than the TMA section.

[Magnet]

One more thing to consider is that the disolved oxygen content right at the source may be low. As the water turbulates and warms up, the DO increases thus enhancing the viability of the aquatic environment.