Images from the Water

Here is this week’s images from the water. Last week I wrote it might have been my last “images” post for a while because of the weather. But I did make it out a couple of days. I hope you enjoy this week’s portfolio.

I’ll begin with this PMD. I love the reflection of long wings on the water.

I was able to capture this effect by getting low, very close to the water.

Dry fly fishing was very slow for us, with few fish rising at all. Here is one I did see close up.

It’s a Kokanee in the last stages of life, finished spawning and ready to provide nutrients to the water.

When the fish aren’t rising, I spend time trying to capture insects floating down the river. The insects were there last week, but no fish rising to them.

Capturing insects floating on the water is incredibly difficult. I sat along the edge of the water yesterday and took around 200 pictures of insects. When returning home, I was happy with 27 of them. I liken it to taking pictures of birds flying. Try to keep them in the center of frame, focus while they and you are moving, and using an f-stop with a narrow focus width. That’s why so many were deleted! Many were shot using 1/1250 of a second and burst mode, keeping my fingers crossed one would be in focus.

Here are a few that turned out…

I’m not an expert on insects, but I’d guess these are Baetis (left) and Cinygmula (right). The Baetis is in focus while the Cinygmula, with its 2 tails, is slightly farther away and not as sharp.

Another Cinygmula with reflected wings. The reflection on the very bottom is a second reflection off a ripple of water.

I like the following image because of the reflection of the body…and the wings.

A straight-on view of a PMD.

The image below of a PMD was taken with ISO of 6400; remarkable it turned out so well!

The wings of this Mayfly is quite unique. Probably size 20 or 22.

Another Baetis, I think in size 20 or 22.

I’m uncertain of this Mayfly…perhaps another Cinygmula, albeit a slightly different color.

I’ll close with these two images. The first one is fairly non-descript. I was trying to capture fall vegetation and it is one I’d probably delete.

The second one is the same image, but heavily cropped.

I was quite surprised to find a Caddis when cropping. I had no idea it was there. Can you see it?

Now that I’ve shared it with you, I plan to delete it.

Enjoy…go fish!