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.
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This is the first of it's family I've seen, collected from a tiny, fishless stream in the Cascades. The three species of this genus all live in the Northwest and are predators that primarily eat stonefly nymphs Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019).
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Great Speckled Olive Duns
This common name refers to only one species. Click its scientific name to learn more.
Mayfly Species Siphloplecton basale
These are often called Great Speckled Olive Duns.
Sadly, the largest mayflies of the early season come in small quantities. Siphloplecton basale matches the impressive size of the Ephemera drakes which follow two months later, but it does not match their numbers. It is common on one of my favorite rivers to see ten to fifteen of these elegant drakes dancing over a riffle in the early Spring. They are difficult to miss in the air, but on the water that quantity cannot get the trout or the angler excited.
There are rumors of fishable Siphloplecton days, but I know none of the details. They might be locally important in places angler-entomologists have yet to visit in the prime months, an unsung local treasure like Baetisca laurentina.
There are rumors of fishable Siphloplecton days, but I know none of the details. They might be locally important in places angler-entomologists have yet to visit in the prime months, an unsung local treasure like Baetisca laurentina.
This one hatched on the same April Saturday that I saw the first Hendricksons of the season.
I went to great comical lengths to swipe this spinner from the air with a little aquarium net I carry with me while I'm fishing. Siphloplecton basale spinners fly fast and high over the riffles, and there are never very many of them, so they're difficult to catch.
This nymph has double front tarsal claws and double gills on the first three abdominal segments.
See 6 more specimens...
References
- Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. 2019. An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America (Fifth Edition). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.