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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

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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Little White Mayflies

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

Mayfly Genus Caenis

These are sometimes called Little White Mayflies.
When the important hatches of Tricorythodes were first discovered by anglers, Caenis was given the credit. We now know that the Caenis mayflies are a different group, smaller and less common in trout streams, and they hatch in the evening instead of the morning.

They very rarely elicit selective feeding, but when they do they're very tough to match because they're often much smaller than size 28. This difficulty has earned them the nickname "Angler's Curse."
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.

Little White Mayflies

Scientific Name
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