Wednesday, July 18, 2012

How small do bugs get?

I was fishing the other day in a farm pond with a small streamer.  Looking carefully at it after each cast I frequently spotted the very tiniest of bugs.  I'd love to know what they are called?  I assume fish eat them.  Frequently I see the sunfish in open water slurping flies near the surface.  I had always assumed they were little midges of some kind, but I never saw any flies.  Could these have been what they were eating?  If so, to match this hatch I'd need about a size 100 dry fly.

Another thought, since these don't seem to have evolved to do much flying, is that this is what I hear the sunfish snapping at in the beds of lilly pads.  Again, I never see any flies.  (Other than the dragonflies and bees which cause bass and panfish to sometimes leap out of the water.

Any idea what this little bug is called?  If you do, just use the comment feature below.  Thanks.


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