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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Oregon's economy roaring at 'full throttle,' state economists say ... Jeld-Wen files to go public with stock offering ... Massive rehearsal planned for Northwest mega-quake, tsunami ... Oregon's economy roaring at 'full throttle,' state economists say ... Jeld-Wen files to go public with stock offering ... Massive rehearsal planned for Northwest mega-quake, tsunami ... OUTDOOR JOURNAL Salmonfly hatch at Holy Water fills sky with bugs, anglers with hope Salmonfly hatch fills sky with bugs, anglers with hope Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jun. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Jun. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM The skinny on fat stoneflies --> Fly-fishers throughout the Western United States annually look forward to the storied hatch of the stonefly, or salmonfly. Known scientifically as Pteronarcys californica, they are t... » Read more X The skinny on fat stoneflies Fly-fishers throughout the Western United States annually look forward to the storied hatch of the stonefly, or salmonfly. Known scientifically as Pteronarcys californica , they are the largest of the stoneflies in the Pacific Northwest and gained their nickname because they hatch during the spring chinook salmon run in Pacific coastal streams such as the Rogue River. Adult stoneflies sport long, scaly bodies, ant-like legs, large wings and a plated, turret-like head. They measure 1 to 2½ inches long, with males about an inch shorter than the females. Males have forked-bar genitalia that protrude off their abdomens and curl onto their backs. They are most commonly found in fast-moving, shallow rivers with softball-sized stones exposed to the sun, and the upper Rogue River provides perfect stonefly habitat. Their presence, however, can be disrupted. An Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat report for the North Fork of the Rogue River states that stoneflies easily can be lost from a stream system if gravels are scoured out and certain forms of organic matter are low. The stonefly's life cycle lasts about four years. Virtually their entire lives are spent as submerged nymphs, with less than two weeks as mature, flying adults. Entomologists say their final cycle begins in the spring when the river temperature warms to about 55 degrees, triggering maturing nymphs to crawl from their rocky havens toward the river's edge. When they emerge, the nymphs crawl under rocks or brush, where they shed their skeletons and emerge as fully mature adults. When their wings dry, they climb onto foliage and mate, with the males dying a few days later. The females then fly over the water, dropping or laying their eggs on the surface at dusk, triggering feeding frenzies for the fish below. Since the bugs hatch based on water temperatures, the hatch first begins in the lower portions of the upper Rogue and works its way upstream.   » Social News TRAIL — A wiggling piece of prehistoric Plecoptera crawls up Wayne Taylor's neck but he doesn't bother to swat it away. After all, it's the reason he travels from Grants Pass to a little isolated patch of the Rogue River every early June, transforming from a steelhead fly-fishing disciple to a trout bum for a few spectacular weeks. "It's all about this bug right here, and it's insane," Taylor says. Yes, he is stoned. Hooked on stoneflies, at least the monster salmonfly version that is now beginning to hatch in hordes along the Rogue and turning the so-called "Holy Water" impoundment between Lost Creek dam and Cole Rivers Hatchery into the go-to spot for top-water trout fishing. Salmonflies now plying the skies over the far upper Rogue are the biggest of the waterborne insects here, and their annual hatch triggers a feeding frenzy in the Rogue basin's trout waters that is unmatched by any other hatch. They're the largest of the stoneflies revered by fly-fishers in Western states and go by the nickname salmonfly because they hatch in the midst of the spring chinook return in rivers such as the Rogue. They hatch after the winter steelhead run but before the Rogue's summer steelhead show up in good numbers, mainly when water temperatures hit 55 degrees. Their timing makes them a perfect bridge for steelheaders segueing from one addiction to another. They're also a hatch of choice for the myopic trout-lovers who relish a change from casting tiny dry flies or nymphs. It's all about casting huge, orange-bodied, dry flies among the rafts of real flies up to 2½ inches long that are floating on the surface. "There isn't any good dry-fly fishing around here, so when these bugs come out, you just have to go," Taylor says. Stonefly patterns range from the Stimulator to the Sofa Pillow and even the bawdy, foam-bodied Chubby Chernobyl. They've been stuffed away, forgotten in fly boxes for a year, before once again becoming currency for cashing in on Southern Oregon's best, but brief, dry-fly trout fishery. Cast them for resident rainbows throughout the Applegate River. Smallmouth bass eat them from the surface of Lost Creek Lake just upstream of the dam. A few resident trout as far up as Union Creek will mouth them, too. But nowhere is the feeding as frenzied as the Holy Water, where thousands of trout in this eight-tenths-of-a-mile stretch of Rogue lock in on these mega-mouthfuls of wiggling protein and the occasional faux fly. "When it's good, it's fantastic," says John Bjorkholm, 77, of Medford, after releasing a 15-inch rainbow. Dry-fly fishing here takes a certain concentration, first to keep the back-cast out of the riverside flora and then to ensure a drag-free drift to fool the underwater fauna. The vegetation eats as many flies as the fish. "One thing about fishing here is you lose a lot of flies," Bjorkholm says. It's also easy to lose oneself in the singular effort of getting one bundle of elk hair and foam to fool a trout already steeped into the aquatic version of a hot dog-eating contest. "The fish can't be full yet," says Glen Nagumo, who makes the annual pilgrimage from San Jose to the Holy Water to fish with Taylor. It's a good hatch this year, with the riverside rocks and trees coated with salmonflies and the cases they've shucked after about four years of aquatic struggle that leads to their few days of terrestrial life. "It's not a good place to be if you don't like bugs," says Nagumo, as stoneflies creep over his arm, shoulders and even his sunglasses. "At least they don't bite." Not biting can be a frustrating theme. Nagumo casts his 3-weight, two-handed spey rod to launch a salmonfly pattern into the current already percolating with wiggling real McCoys. "You cast next to a real one and a trout comes up and, BOOM, takes the real one and you just watch your fly float down," Nagumo says. "Eventually you watch one go WHOMP on your fly." That occasional whomp persuaded Bjorkholm to skip a dinner date Wednesday in favor of the stonefly party. The focus is intense, but he always tries to remember to just look up occasionally, as he did at the height of last year's hatch, to take in the entomological orgy in the skies. It is, after all, all about the stones. "Hundreds of thousands of bugs swarming in the air," Bjorkholm says. "I stopped fishing and just stared. It was awe-inspiring." Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . 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