A declining delicacy: What's happening with the giant salmonfly, a trout's bug of choice

Each year in late May and early June, trout feast and anglers flock to waterways for the giant salmonfly hatch, when the ecologically vital bugs emerge from streams as nymphs and hatch out of the water into winged adults before reproducing and dying, leaving behind only the "shucks" they emerged from clinging to brush on the shoreline.

Growing up to 3 inches long, adult giant salmonflies are the largest of the stonefly family. They are so substantial that osprey, which generally consume fish, have been observed snatching up airborne salmonflies. 

On this week’s episode, Joshua Murdock, outdoors reporter for the Missoulian talks about giant salmonfly populations declining in some streams across the West and how researchers at University of Montana are trying to understand what factors affect a bug that is essential to trout and the economies of fishing towns.

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Montana Untamed, hosted by Thom Bridge, covers the state's rugged landscape from hook and bullet to policy and science.