Header image
Enter a name
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.

Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Quick bug stop on the Dosewallips River

Quick bug stop on the Dosewallips River

By Troutnut on July 6th, 2020
This long day trip from home to the Olympic Peninsula was primarily an attempt to dig a geoduck, a Pacific Northwest delicacy and the largest species of burrowing clam. I built a special tool to help dig them up from 3 feet under the sediment in the tidal flat off the Dosewallips River estuary, where the big clams are exposed only during the lowest tides of the summer. They're apparently located among the eelgrass at this beach by locating where they spurt jets of water 5-10 feet into the air as the tide recedes or rises. Unfortunately, I didn't see a single jet of water nor any other sign of a geoduck, even with the tide dropping to -2.8 feet.

My consolation prizes were some delicious steamer clams (manila clams), an easy find higher in the tidal zone, and some bugs to photograph from a short sampling stop upriver.

Photos by Troutnut

Closeup insects by Troutnut from the Dosewallips River in Washington

Troutnut.com is copyright © 2004-2023 (email Jason). privacy policy