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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
Blue-winged Olives
Baetis

Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.

Case view of a Pycnopsyche guttifera (Limnephilidae) (Great Autumn Brown Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
It's only barely visible in one of my pictures, but I confirmed under the microscope that this one has a prosternal horn and the antennae are mid-way between the eyes and front of the head capsule.

I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.

The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.

Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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Angler's Curses

This common name refers to only one family. Click its scientific name to learn more.

Mayfly Family Caenidae

These are often called Angler's Curses.
The tiny mayflies of this family are usually found in warm, slow, marginal trout water, although some trout streams hold good populations too.

The only genus ever known to produce fishable hatches is Caenis. It turns up frequently for anglers who sample nymphs, but it is rarely of any practical importance for fly fishing because its emergence traits and tiny size (even smaller than Tricorythodes) make it relatively unimportant.

Brachycercus is even more focused on warm water than Caenis.
Here's a goofy picture of a Caenis dun falling off the back of a leaf, never to be seen again.  These mayflies are very tiny and fragile, and very hard to capture and photograph without damaging. This little dun hatched from the nymph in a tub of nymphs while I was picking through for aquatic specimens to photograph... I grabbed the leaf it hatched onto and tried to take some pictures but it got away after about half a picture.

Female Caenis (Caenidae) (Angler's Curse) Mayfly Dun from unknown in Wisconsin
Caenis (Caenidae) (Angler's Curse) Mayfly Nymph from unknown in Wisconsin
I confirmed the identity of this nymph by looking at it under a microscope to be certain of the shape of its gills and head.

Angler's Curses

Scientific Name
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