name that hatch

[LD Whitley]

I was fishing a stream in SE Minnesota (Driftless region) late into the
evening a couple of weeks ago. As the night fell there was the
beginnings of activity on the stream. I was able to get an occasional
take on very small flies (#22, #24 PTs) but it was clear that I was only
sort of close - didn't have the right fly.

The bats were also out in force but whatever they were taking, I
couldn't see it in the failing light. I pulled out my flashlight and
held it close to the water and saw a lot of very small insects in the
air a foot or two above the surface of the water.

With the light gone I gave up. On the way back to the car, I looked in
the webs along the stream side got a view of the bugs - they were light
colored, so small as to be transparent. In the dark and glare of the
flashlight, it was hard to tell much of anything about the flies - just
they were light colored and terribly small.

Three weeks later I was fishing the same stream in the daylight and came
across a large branch hung up in a riffle just downstream of where I had
been fishing before. The branch had been there for a while and was well
populated with spiders and their webs. On the webs I found a large
number of the flies described above. They were about 1/2 the size of a
trico and seemed to come in two varieties (male and female?) one was a
light cream color and the other was the same light cream with a light
tint of green - both were translucent. The two wings were largish and
clear - rather similar to the proportion as seen in the trico. I
couldn't see tails on these bugs - but I also don't really know how long
they'd been in the webs.

A friend with whom I fish another stream on the Wisconsin side of the
Driftless region has reported similar findings, and similar problems in
taking fish when they're hatching.

Anyone know what these flies are?

Larry

 

[Tom Littleton]

maybe Caenis, maybe some really bleached-out Pseudocleon(you did say you had
no idea how long in
the web). Both can have species that run pretty small,
say size 26 or 28 hook sized........

Tom

 

[walketim@gmail.com]

LD Whitley wrote:
> I was fishing a stream in SE Minnesota (Driftless region) late into the
> evening a couple of weeks ago. As the night fell there was the
> beginnings of activity on the stream. I was able to get an occasional
> take on very small flies (#22, #24 PTs) but it was clear that I was only
> sort of close - didn't have the right fly.
>
> The bats were also out in force but whatever they were taking, I
> couldn't see it in the failing light. I pulled out my flashlight and
> held it close to the water and saw a lot of very small insects in the
> air a foot or two above the surface of the water.
>
> With the light gone I gave up. On the way back to the car, I looked in
> the webs along the stream side got a view of the bugs - they were light
> colored, so small as to be transparent. In the dark and glare of the
> flashlight, it was hard to tell much of anything about the flies - just
> they were light colored and terribly small.
>
> Three weeks later I was fishing the same stream in the daylight and came
> across a large branch hung up in a riffle just downstream of where I had
> been fishing before. The branch had been there for a while and was well
> populated with spiders and their webs. On the webs I found a large
> number of the flies described above. They were about 1/2 the size of a
> trico and seemed to come in two varieties (male and female?) one was a
> light cream color and the other was the same light cream with a light
> tint of green - both were translucent. The two wings were largish and
> clear - rather similar to the proportion as seen in the trico. I
> couldn't see tails on these bugs - but I also don't really know how long
> they'd been in the webs.
>
> A friend with whom I fish another stream on the Wisconsin side of the
> Driftless region has reported similar findings, and similar problems in
> taking fish when they're hatching.
>
> Anyone know what these flies are?
>
> Larry

Maybe E. Leukon?

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/825/Mayfly-Ephoron-leukon-White-Fly

Have you tried an all white emerger?
Your pal,

Halfordian Golfer

 

[Tom Nakashima]

"LD Whitley" <ldwhitley.removeme@andme.charter.net> wrote in message
news:Y%_Mg.1528$aw5.710@newsfe07.lga...
>I was fishing a stream in SE Minnesota (Driftless region) late into the
>evening a couple of weeks ago. As the night fell there was the beginnings
>of activity on the stream. I was able to get an occasional take on very
>small flies (#22, #24 PTs) but it was clear that I was only sort of close -
>didn't have the right fly.
>
> The bats were also out in force but whatever they were taking, I couldn't
> see it in the failing light. I pulled out my flashlight and held it close
> to the water and saw a lot of very small insects in the air a foot or two
> above the surface of the water.
>
> With the light gone I gave up. On the way back to the car, I looked in
> the webs along the stream side got a view of the bugs - they were light
> colored, so small as to be transparent. In the dark and glare of the
> flashlight, it was hard to tell much of anything about the flies - just
> they were light colored and terribly small.
>
> Three weeks later I was fishing the same stream in the daylight and came
> across a large branch hung up in a riffle just downstream of where I had
> been fishing before. The branch had been there for a while and was well
> populated with spiders and their webs. On the webs I found a large number
> of the flies described above. They were about 1/2 the size of a trico and
> seemed to come in two varieties (male and female?) one was a light cream
> color and the other was the same light cream with a light tint of green -
> both were translucent. The two wings were largish and clear - rather
> similar to the proportion as seen in the trico. I couldn't see tails on
> these bugs - but I also don't really know how long they'd been in the
> webs.
>
> A friend with whom I fish another stream on the Wisconsin side of the
> Driftless region has reported similar findings, and similar problems in
> taking fish when they're hatching.
>
> Anyone know what these flies are?
>
> Larry

Larry, it's hard to say exactly what the exact pattern is without catching
one and doing a full examination of matching the hatch .One of the things I
learned from fishing and researching the dry fly pattern is "sometimes" it's
not important to match the hatch exact, only when they are in abundance and
the only thing fish are on the rise for, even more-so in still water. It is
also good to present something different to them other than the exact hatch.
At least from your description the fish were on the rise.
I keep in my mind:
1. Size
2. Pattern
3. Color
What I do first is try to match the hatch. If I can't do that, I go for
size.
The three basic dry flies I use are:
1. Imitators
2. Searching Flies
3. Attractors
and I fish the dry flies in that order.
fwiw,
-tom

 

[salmobytes]

LD Whitley wrote:
> I was able to get an occasional
> take on very small flies (#22, #24 PTs) but it was clear that I was only
> sort of close - didn't have the right fly.
>
> Larry

.......sounds like pseudo-klingons

 

[Tom Littleton]

<walketim@gmail.com> wrote in message >
> Maybe E. Leukon?
>
> http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/825/Mayfly-Ephoron-leukon-White-Fly
>
> Have you tried an all white emerger?
> Your pal,
>
> Halfordian Golfer
>

he stated that they were smaller than Tricos.....you could
probably train a White Fly to carry around 50 Tricos, they are about a size
14 fly.......
Tom

 

[Wayne Harrison]

"Tom Littleton" <tjlitt@verizon.net> wrote

you could
> probably train a White Fly to carry around 50 Tricos, they are about a
> size
> 14 fly.......
>
hilarious, and absolutely obroff...

yfitons
wayno

 

[LD Whitley]

Googling Caenis I found this:
http://www.pbase.com/michellemahood/image/32893967

The thorax wasn't dark this picture and had no trico-like hump. The
thorax was about the same as the abdomen - certainly the same color and
about the same diameter. Also some were this
cream-with-a-tint-of-light-green color (although most were cream).

Larry

Tom Littleton wrote:
> maybe Caenis, maybe some really bleached-out Pseudocleon(you did say you had
> no idea how long in
> the web). Both can have species that run pretty small,
> say size 26 or 28 hook sized........
>
> Tom
>
>

 

[LD Whitley]

Tom Nakashima wrote:

>
> Larry, it's hard to say exactly what the exact pattern is without catching
> one and doing a full examination of matching the hatch .One of the things I
> learned from fishing and researching the dry fly pattern is "sometimes" it's
> not important to match the hatch exact, only when they are in abundance and
> the only thing fish are on the rise for, even more-so in still water. It is
> also good to present something different to them other than the exact hatch.
> At least from your description the fish were on the rise.
> I keep in my mind:
> 1. Size
> 2. Pattern
> 3. Color
> What I do first is try to match the hatch. If I can't do that, I go for
> size.
> The three basic dry flies I use are:
> 1. Imitators
> 2. Searching Flies
> 3. Attractors
> and I fish the dry flies in that order.
> fwiw,
> -tom
>
>

I see two challenges in tying an imitation of this fly - one is the
size. It was 1/2 the size of a trico - no kidding! The other is its
light color and its translucent body.

I've been thinking of trying to tie something off the hook - on a piece
of mono-filament attached in some manner to the hook.... But am still
playing with ideas in my head.

On the other hand, the fish were showing a measure of interest in my
very small PTs (#22, #24) so maybe the translucency is not really an issue.

Larry

 

[walketim@gmail.com]

Wayne Harrison wrote:
> "Tom Littleton" <tjlitt@verizon.net> wrote
>
> you could
> > probably train a White Fly to carry around 50 Tricos, they are about a
> > size
> > 14 fly.......
> >
> hilarious, and absolutely obroff...
>
> yfitons
> wayno

About 8 years ago I was fishing a small beaver pond near Marble, Co on
a pretty much daily basis. There was this tiny, size 22 mayfly that
came off at dusk, tiny damned perfect little white mayfly. Very cool. I
matched it with pure antron and cream spade hackles (or microfibbets?),
and caught fish. Anyway, about that time one of the major magazines
carried an article about a mystery white fly hatch of PA that was about
size 22. I remember the article showing that the fly had these little
vestigal front legs that were, apparently, good for nothing. I thought
for sure I had discovered my own mystery fly hatch, in Colorado. Either
I am mistaken or that article identified this fly as a E. Leukon.
Which, I think I have been wrong about the name of this fly ever since.
If anyone remembers this story and can confirm, or deny it, I'd be
indebted.

Your pal,

Halfordian Golfer
It is impossible to catch and release a wild trout.

 

[sandfly]

unless I see a pic i would say a diptera(midge) 2 winged, smaller than a trico a midge...

 

[theartoflee]

unless I see a pic i would say a diptera(midge) 2 winged, smaller than a trico a midge...

I side with sandfly on this! If I had a picture of the bug and was able to refrence Midge Magic I think I might be able to make a posative ID.

I whish I knew where in Minn this river is. Could it possibly be the straight river?