1. Troutnut Forum
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2. Specimen Discussion
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3. BWO at last!

read no further if stories of personal revelation are not your thing...

at last i have actually seen these little wonders hatching on a not-very-nice day (overcast and 46 degrees) on a very nice creek. gee, they are neat! the cold kept them on the water for quite a while and they did indeed look just like little sailboats. the small eddies and riffles seemed not to bother them at all, and made the whole assembly look like a tiny square dance. now i understand what all the fuss is about.

the best/worst part was letting my store-bought fly drift among them. it was the right size, but the wing was too short and the hackle should have been dun, not grizzley. stream-side tying was out of the question 'cause my fingers were numb. i did get one fish, but he might have been after the real one next the imitation...

so, back to the bench and those awful tiny hooks. lots of baseball to tie to these days...;-)

Casey, the olive emerger I sent in the fly swap often works when these little guys are out, especially in the spring when the bugs are a bit bigger. The barbless gamakatsu hooks I use for the spring emerger may not go down small enough for some of the fall varieties, but a small scud hook will work. Also, a Tiemco 921 hook in the smaller sizes is good sometimes for comparaduns and other dun patterns for these bugs. I also use it when I tie Gonzo's shucking emerger, but don't tell him! It is a 2X short hook, and it has a very wide gap for effective hooking. It's also a bit heavy, and helps the fly sit low in the film. Have fun; olives are just the best!

thanks, Louis! when i went to look at the bug pictures, there was a recipe from you, and i can add the hook info to that. a heavier hook seems to be a good idea in these teeny sizes since the heft of the material grows as the hook size shrinks, it seems to me. the heavier hook would make it float right. the gamakatsu hooks are pretty fine--though they make a wonderful little klinkhamer.

thanks for the help!

Olives are the best and most plentiful hatch that I have ever fished. I almost always have the best luck with a Quill Bodied parachute. The trick with this hatch is just like the trico hatch, don't flock shoot. You have to pick a fish a find out the pattern in which he is rising.

Tight Lines!