If you missed the Stream Team monitoring on April 21st 2018, you missed a good one.
FATC member Mike Bisaga, Mike Chambers, Bill Lowry, Miles Meyer, and Don Varner headed out to Calvey Creek in Robertville State Park on very pleasant Saturnday morning. The guys met at our usual parking place in the State Park campground, gathered our stuff, and headed out on the cross country journey to reach our creek location. The underbrush has not grown in yet, so the hike was not too bad. At least going down the hill…
After about a 20 minute hike, we reached the creek. As usual, it looked a bit different than last time we were there. Since our monitoring location is just over a mile upstream from the Meramec River, it floods regularly, which changes the flow dratically. Mike and Mike did a quick assessment and decided on a few locations that would work for taking out samples. We had to try a few before we found three that would work. Some spots looked really nice, but once we got in them, they were either too deep or they had a sandy, very unstable bottom and we would quickly sink into the sand. Almost alost a couple guys, but we were able to save everyone before they completely disappeared into the “quick” sand.
At first, none of the net samples looked too good, however, once we got into them, there were more critters than we expected. We found the normal insects that we normally find, Mayflys, Midges, Caddisfly, Craneflys(Mop) etc. We also found a few things that we have never seen.
The first was a large, Stonefly. Probably almost 2 inches long. Not huge as far as Stoneflys go, but the biggest we have ever found on our creeks. The second was something we have never found, and we had 2 of them in one net. These were a couple of Hellgrammites(Dobsonflys). In adult form, Dobsonflys can grow up to a wingspan of 7″. In larval form, they grow fairly large as well and have a serious attitude. As you can see in the pictures, they have large mandibles at the head, and they are not afraid to use them. They quickly grasped onto anything we put in front of them. We made a point to keep our fingers at a safe distance. A very cool find.
Once all our activities were complete, we started the much more difficult trek back UP to the cars. All survived the climb.
To continue the “tradition”(this is twice now) we all headed to Super Smokers in Eureka for a little BBQ lunch fellowship lunch.
If you have not joined us for a Stream Team monitoring, I highly suggest it. You will gain a much better understanding of the aquatic insects we are trying to imitate with our flys… and we always have a good time.