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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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Cdcaddis18
Huntington, PA

Posts: 16
Cdcaddis18 on Oct 11, 2009October 11th, 2009, 4:06 pm EDT
Personally I like to dig up dragonfly larvae or those cream colored caddis worms in the stick cases and dead drift them under a Thill float with my centerpin outfit down the seams and runs of all the central and north central PA streams and rivers.
RedQuill27
Wisconsin

Posts: 13
RedQuill27 on Nov 15, 2009November 15th, 2009, 10:14 am EST
1. Woolly bugger
2. Hare's ear soft hackle
3. Adam's
4. Hunchback Scud
5. Soft hackle Woolly
6. Muddler Minnow

These 6 flies in a handful of sizes will catch almost any type of trout, bass, panfish, or carp.

Tight Lines!
Fishing is like sex, when its good its great, and when its bad its still pretty good.
Delablobbo
Posts: 21
Delablobbo on Dec 29, 2009December 29th, 2009, 8:26 am EST
1. Adams
2. Caddis Variant Light (outfishes the Elk Hair Caddis, I swear).
3. Griffth's Gnat.
4. Hare's Ear Soft Hackle (which I often fish as a nymph).
5. Olive Comparadun (works for sulfurs, too).
6. Partridge and Orange softhackle (which I often fish as a nymph).
Herc
Posts: 2
Herc on Apr 27, 2010April 27th, 2010, 7:45 am EDT
Louie Special {betty pattern}
Adams
White midge
Daves Hopper
Trico
brown spinner.

Herc
Herc
Posts: 2
Herc on Apr 27, 2010April 27th, 2010, 7:45 am EDT
Louie Special {betty pattern}
Adams
White midge
Daves Hopper
Trico
brown spinner.

Herc
Okanogan
Los Angles California

Posts: 1
Okanogan on May 27, 2010May 27th, 2010, 7:09 am EDT
...man, I hope I at least remembered to bring some soy sauce and wasabi for all that raw fish...

i think I'd go with

bead-head hare's ear

bead-head pheasant tail

a reeeeeealy tiny zonker with dark green squirrel and a silver body

parachute adams

simple white, quill parachute

tan elk hair caddis
"All men are equal before a fish."
TNEAL
GRAYLING. MICHIGAN

Posts: 278
TNEAL on May 27, 2010May 27th, 2010, 1:35 pm EDT
Roberts Drake
Borchers Parachute
Hopper
Wet Skunk (all black)
Royal Coachman Parachute
Dark Olive Wooly Bugger

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