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.
Some characteristics from the microscope images for the tentative species id: The postero-lateral projections are found only on segment 9, not segment 8. Based on the key in Jacobus et al. (2014), it appears to key to Neoleptophlebia adoptiva or Neoleptophlebia heteronea, same as this specimen with pretty different abdominal markings. However, distinguishing between those calls for comparing the lengths of the second and third segment of the labial palp, and this one (like the other one) only seems to have two segments. So I'm stuck on them both. It's likely that the fact that they're immature nymphs stymies identification in some important way.
Friday I drove from the Seattle area out to Yakima, Washington, where a FEMA-run Covid vaccination clinic has so many extra doses and appointments that they're eagerly offering them to people who aren't yet officially eligible. (Washington is one of the last states to open the vaccine to everybody.) I'm looking forward to being able to safely travel on airplanes again and have at least a couple exciting fishing trips planned for this summer.
For now, I just wanted to catch the first fish of the year on my drive home via the Yakima Canyon.
Action on the Yakima was slow, and I'm consistently frustrated there by the difficult access to good spots from the road-side bank. But I did see one single rise, then caught the fish on a nymph.
My first trout of 2021! Not a big one, but a start.
It's a start!
I also collected quite a few nymphs as an excuse to have some fun with the new microscope I got last fall. The highlight was probably finding a specimen of Heptagenia pulla, which isn't known from Washington or neighboring states.
