Hellgrammites and Scuds

[catchmorebluegill]

I've only been able to search a couple creeks and lakes for them, but I have never found any hellgrammites or scuds. I have heard that both make fine fishing bait and am thinking about trying them out. If anybody knows anything about where to find these, how to catch them, and/or how to fish them, please post it here. Thank you.

[lskiles]

That is interesting that you have not found any.
I remember as a kid in eastern Washington picking them up out of the creeks and using them for bait.
I have no useful information for you, but thanks for bringing that memory up for me...made me smile!

[YellowBear]

You can make a simple trap for Hellgramites.
find a big piece of tree bark, the rougher the better.
If there is a pond or lake that has tulies or reeds near the bank, lay your trap bark side down in the vegitation.
Let it be for a couple of days before you check on it.
The little critters will crawl into the cracks in the bark.
You could also take a piece of wood and drill a bunch of holes in it.
Make them about a 1 &1/2 inches deep and a 1/4 in around.

[catchmorebluegill]

Thank you for the info. I'll have to try that next time I go fishing! :thumleft:

[Anglinarcher]

As for scuds, that is interesting as well. I have not looked for them in Washington, but in other states I have found them in the coon tail weed beds found in streams and rivers, and in similar fibrous weeds in cold lakes.

I am not sure how many are in Eastern Washington, Scuds prefer slightly alkaline water so they should here. I have seen them at Sprague in past years, but when I was turning over rocks looking for crayfish.

[YellowBear]

Hello catchmorebluegill, welcome to washingtonlakes.com.

I see you are in Deer Park.
Have you ever been over to Bailey lake?
At one time it had some pretty respecable Green Sunfish in it, was just wondering if they were still in there.
I also used to spend time at Horseshoe, can a guy still catch a stringer of catfish up there?

[fish4brains]

Why not just fish these:

[chironomid_guy]

Fish for brains........... V nice scud pattern. Is the main body made of glass beads and then covered with clear strechflex? Cheers

[fish4brains]

Fish for brains........... V nice scud pattern. Is the main body made of glass beads and then covered with clear strechflex? Cheers

That is not my fly but, I tie one similar. The main body is dubbed and then Olive tinsel pulled over then wrapped with mono or copper wire to give a segmented look. One of my favorite scuds is a "ray charles".

[catchmorebluegill]

Thank you all for the information. Yellow Bear, this year I tried to go to Bailey Lake, but it turned out that the lake was private now. Somebody told me that it has been for about 10 years. :( I haven't been up to Horseshoe Lake for about 5 years, but I used to go to it all the time and plan to go up there soon. I am sorry to say that I never remember catching any catfish at Horseshoe Lake, save for one brown bullhead that was about 3 inches long from water about a foot deep. They also closed the resort on Horseshoe, but you can still enter the lake via the public launch. The lake does produce some good trout, perch, and pumpkinseeds sometimes.

[YellowBear]

It seems Horseshoe is one of those forgotten places.
It used to hold good numbers of big Largemouth and The Crappie fishing was out of this world.
The creek going out of the lake was always good for big Cutthroat.
To bad the resort had to close again.
Thanks for the report from up there, its been sometime since I have been in the area.

[Anglinarcher]

Something you asked bothered me just a little. I have lived in many states of in my life, and I remember finding Hellgrammmites in Southern Utah, and Eastern Colorado; but both rarely.

I have never seen a hellgrammite in Washington, Oregon, or Montana.

I found the following web site useful in making sure we were talking about the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfly

I also found the following web site relating to a study done in Washington. It talks about only finding them (Sialis) in one of every 5 sites they tested.

http://www.xerces.org/CD-ROM%20for%20we ... nge_WA.htm

If you find hellgrammites, please take a pic for us and post it. Feel free to keep you source a secret, but I'd love to know if they are common at all in Washington.

[lskiles]

Anglinarcher, I was told as a kid that what we were finding and using for bait were hellgrammmites, but they were a larva that was living in a cocoon that looked like a small tube made of little tiny rocks. about an inch long (I think) and not very big around. We found them in shallow, moving water. I feel kind of foolish now not knowing what they were and thinking this whole time they were hellgrammmites.

But still, as my first post said, it did bring back some good memories no matter what kind of bugs they were, and hellgrammmites is such a cool name. If I ever buy an arena football team that is what I will name them!

The owner of the Vancouver Hellgrammmites football team today said...

[fish4brains]

Anglinarcher, I was told as a kid that what we were finding and using for bait were hellgrammmites, but they were a larva that was living in a cocoon that looked like a small tube made of little tiny rocks. about an inch long (I think) and not very big around. We found them in shallow, moving water. I feel kind of foolish now not knowing what they were and thinking this whole time they were hellgrammmites.

But still, as my first post said, it did bring back some good memories no matter what kind of bugs they were, and hellgrammmites is such a cool name. If I ever buy an arena football team that is what I will name them!

The owner of the Vancouver Hellgrammmites football team today said...

Actually what you found in the rock case were Caddis in the larva stage. I assumed the original poster was confusing hellgramites with some family of stone fly nymph, a lot of people just say hellgramite to anything that looks like a stone fly nymph.

[Anglinarcher]

Ya, cased cadis is what you found lskiles , and they are great bait to use. fish4brains, I wondered about the Stone Fly thing as well, and that is why I posted the link. The Stone Fly make great bait as well.

Still, it is quite possible that helgies can be found locally. The fact that one species was found in 1 of 5 samples indicates that a source could be had, if we knew where to look.

Personally, I'm tooooooooo old and toooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fat to grub for bait anymore. Besides, I like to C&R most of the time, so I'm mostly an artifical guy now. But, if something exits that I shoud be imitating, darn it, I want to know about it.

[chironomid_guy]

I usually hear stonefly larvae refered to as "helgramites" here with the older crowd of locals. The Kettle river system is full of them as well as cadis larvae. Curiously enough there is an october cadis hatch on the Kettle. The October cadis larvae usually reach about 1.5 - 2 inches in lenght in a small stone covered case (yes, they're really that big) and hatch in October (its a great late season fishery). I can dig up some photos if you like?

Cheers

[Hal]

Is a Perrywinkle the same thing?

[michaelunbewust]

shoot, there are hellgramites in eastern washington. joe cerna and buddy loren have been using them for years for rainbow trout. i remember walking into virgin lake (seep lakes/othello area) with them in the 80's, and, i'd have my pauztke's balls'o fire. they would pull out these things they call "hellgramites", and outfished me 2-1, and, they caught some whoppers outta warden, canal, heart to name a few. i never wanted to touch'em, so, they would never let me use them. wierd because, i would use a grasshopper, but, not one of those things they had!! and they were always nailing the bigger rainbows.

[Anglinarcher]

shoot, there are hellgramites in eastern washington. joe cerna and buddy loren have been using them for years for rainbow trout. i remember walking into virgin lake (seep lakes/othello area) with them in the 80's, and, i'd have my pauztke's balls'o fire. they would pull out these things they call "hellgramites", and outfished me 2-1, and, they caught some whoppers outta warden, canal, heart to name a few. i never wanted to touch'em, so, they would never let me use them. wierd because, i would use a grasshopper, but, not one of those things they had!! and they were always nailing the bigger rainbows.

Could you get Joe or Buddy to take a picture of them for us. I'd love to know what size they were, what drainage they were in, and expecially what color they are. The report did say that they found them in 1 of 5 sites they tested, just not very many. I'd love to know more.

[christopherbeebe]

Is a Perrywinkle the same thing?

a perrywinkle and a caddisfly are the same thing, we called them perrywinkles when i was a kid playin in the streams good memories :compress: