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.
Featured on the forum
As far as I can tell, this species has only previously been reported from one site in Oregon along the Columbia gorge. However, the key characteristics are fairly unmistakable in all except for one minor detail:
— 4 small yellow spots on frons visible in photos
— Narrow occipital spinule row curves forward (but doesn’t quite meet on stem of ecdysial suture, as it's supposed to in this species)
— Short spinules on anterior margin of front legs
— Short rposterior row of blunt spinules on abdominal tergae, rather than elongated spinules dorsally
I caught several of these mature nymphs in the fishless, tiny headwaters of a creek high in the Wenatchee Mountains.
— 4 small yellow spots on frons visible in photos
— Narrow occipital spinule row curves forward (but doesn’t quite meet on stem of ecdysial suture, as it's supposed to in this species)
— Short spinules on anterior margin of front legs
— Short rposterior row of blunt spinules on abdominal tergae, rather than elongated spinules dorsally
I caught several of these mature nymphs in the fishless, tiny headwaters of a creek high in the Wenatchee Mountains.
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Lastchance on Dec 20, 2009December 20th, 2009, 2:03 am EST
Merry Christmas to all and the Happiest of New Year's.
Bruce
Bruce
Martinlf on Dec 20, 2009December 20th, 2009, 3:32 am EST
Happy Holidays to all Troutnuts, and hopes for just the right gear for the New Year under your tree.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
Softhackle on Dec 20, 2009December 20th, 2009, 11:50 am EST
Happy Holiday, All!
Mark
Mark
"I have the highest respect for the skilled wet-fly fisherman, as he has mastered an art of very great difficulty." Edward R. Hewitt
Flymphs, Soft-hackles and Spiders: http://www.troutnut.com/libstudio/FS&S/index.html
Flymphs, Soft-hackles and Spiders: http://www.troutnut.com/libstudio/FS&S/index.html
Oldredbarn on Dec 21, 2009December 21st, 2009, 8:27 am EST
Mark,
Nice photo, but it makes me happy to think that, instead of freezing in a snowy stream somewhere, I've resigned myself to warmth at the fly tying bench with the extra heater fan blowing at me!
I actually had to clean up the tying area and put everything away where it's supposed to be. We put up the tree in the basement over this weekend and the nieces and nephews each have a gift under there and they will be hanging at the house on Saturday...
Uncle Spence and Aunt Lisa will stuff them with pizza, they will open their gifts, Spence will be sipping his Molsons, and if they don't look ready to leave...In goes Polar Express in to the Big Screen...Then off they go for another year...
Tonight we are making peanut-butter balls and Christmas cookies and I'll be putting on a few more pounds no doubt...
Merry Christmas to all of you folks out there in virtual land and here's wishing you a Happy New Year...Stay healthy and keep your eye out for spring...Wait till a few weeks in to the new year, after you have sobered up a bit, to start working on those size 20's and smaller...I don't want you to hurt yourself!
Spence
P.S. Happy Holiday's to our host Jason up in Alaska as well...I'm making a list and I'm checking it twice as to the bugs I still need you to photograph! Hey! Isn't Santa just down the road a piece from you?
Nice photo, but it makes me happy to think that, instead of freezing in a snowy stream somewhere, I've resigned myself to warmth at the fly tying bench with the extra heater fan blowing at me!
I actually had to clean up the tying area and put everything away where it's supposed to be. We put up the tree in the basement over this weekend and the nieces and nephews each have a gift under there and they will be hanging at the house on Saturday...
Uncle Spence and Aunt Lisa will stuff them with pizza, they will open their gifts, Spence will be sipping his Molsons, and if they don't look ready to leave...In goes Polar Express in to the Big Screen...Then off they go for another year...
Tonight we are making peanut-butter balls and Christmas cookies and I'll be putting on a few more pounds no doubt...
Merry Christmas to all of you folks out there in virtual land and here's wishing you a Happy New Year...Stay healthy and keep your eye out for spring...Wait till a few weeks in to the new year, after you have sobered up a bit, to start working on those size 20's and smaller...I don't want you to hurt yourself!
Spence
P.S. Happy Holiday's to our host Jason up in Alaska as well...I'm making a list and I'm checking it twice as to the bugs I still need you to photograph! Hey! Isn't Santa just down the road a piece from you?
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
CaseyP on Dec 21, 2009December 21st, 2009, 11:52 am EST
"Peace on Earth" to the best community on the web. thanks for being such great friends!
"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
Tilman on Dec 23, 2009December 23rd, 2009, 9:04 am EST
Happy Holy Days to you guys out there.
I´m watching trout fishing videos on youtube at the moment and i´m getting serious about leaving this country for good.
(Alaska doesn´t look too bad, either, btw.)
I just have to fish some more waters out there. There are such beautiful places to be.
I wish you all the best and stay healthy and i hope we all will have some success next year.
I´m watching trout fishing videos on youtube at the moment and i´m getting serious about leaving this country for good.
(Alaska doesn´t look too bad, either, btw.)
I just have to fish some more waters out there. There are such beautiful places to be.
I wish you all the best and stay healthy and i hope we all will have some success next year.
Entoman on Dec 22, 2011December 22nd, 2011, 8:17 pm EST
Merry Christmas to all you Troutnutters. May your flies float better and the trout rise surer in the coming year.:)
Happy Holidays,
Kurt
Happy Holidays,
Kurt
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Softhackle on Dec 23, 2011December 23rd, 2011, 3:37 am EST
Same from me. Hoping for a great new year. Thank-you all for your support!
Mark
Mark
"I have the highest respect for the skilled wet-fly fisherman, as he has mastered an art of very great difficulty." Edward R. Hewitt
Flymphs, Soft-hackles and Spiders: http://www.troutnut.com/libstudio/FS&S/index.html
Flymphs, Soft-hackles and Spiders: http://www.troutnut.com/libstudio/FS&S/index.html
Jesse on Dec 23, 2011December 23rd, 2011, 6:07 am EST
I hope everyone has great holidays to come, and much love to everyone!!!
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
PaulRoberts on Dec 23, 2011December 23rd, 2011, 7:24 am EST
We have the honor this year of hosting the daughter of one of our very best friends in China (where my wife and I lived and came together), and whom we haven't seen in ten years. She just started graduate work here in the US and we flew her to our home for the holiday. Through her eyes we get to see our own world anew.
Being from urban industrial south China, she has never seen mountains, stars (much less the Milky Way), snow (and we woke to 24" of fresh powder yesterday), deer, etc... She is...mesmerized. Take the stunning wondrous world Hollywood created in the movie "Avatar" and that is where she is right now.
We've gone sledding, snowshoeing, ice skating, and hiked into the mountains to cut a Christmas tree, and decorated it by a log fire with homemade ornaments made from collected feathers, seeds, acorns, spruce cones, milkweed down, as well as memorable flies, lures, arrows, and rifle casings from the year. She said when she was very young, her class sent Christmas cards as part of their English learning, and the cards they had showed a log cabin with deep snow on the roof and an orange glow in the window. She is delighted in knowing where such an image comes from.
She takes carefully composed photos of EVERY frosted grass stem, studies snowflakes as they settle on her borrowed parka, gasps at how the snow sparkles under starlight, and marvels at the absolute silence. The natural world has opened up before her, and will carry on to those she will know in the future. Already she is talking of coming back with a fellow grad student in the summer for a camping trip in the high country -something Chinese women are not known to do. We feel especially honored and blessed this year. She makes us that much more appreciative of what we have.
Yes, Happy Holidays to all. Appreciate them, and all we have in the year to come. We only get so many of them.
Being from urban industrial south China, she has never seen mountains, stars (much less the Milky Way), snow (and we woke to 24" of fresh powder yesterday), deer, etc... She is...mesmerized. Take the stunning wondrous world Hollywood created in the movie "Avatar" and that is where she is right now.
We've gone sledding, snowshoeing, ice skating, and hiked into the mountains to cut a Christmas tree, and decorated it by a log fire with homemade ornaments made from collected feathers, seeds, acorns, spruce cones, milkweed down, as well as memorable flies, lures, arrows, and rifle casings from the year. She said when she was very young, her class sent Christmas cards as part of their English learning, and the cards they had showed a log cabin with deep snow on the roof and an orange glow in the window. She is delighted in knowing where such an image comes from.
She takes carefully composed photos of EVERY frosted grass stem, studies snowflakes as they settle on her borrowed parka, gasps at how the snow sparkles under starlight, and marvels at the absolute silence. The natural world has opened up before her, and will carry on to those she will know in the future. Already she is talking of coming back with a fellow grad student in the summer for a camping trip in the high country -something Chinese women are not known to do. We feel especially honored and blessed this year. She makes us that much more appreciative of what we have.
Yes, Happy Holidays to all. Appreciate them, and all we have in the year to come. We only get so many of them.
GldstrmSam on Dec 23, 2011December 23rd, 2011, 8:40 am EST
Hey Tilman,
I've heard many people say that Alaska grows on you till you can't leave. Since I have lived all my life in Alaska then I can totally believe it. I have been through most of the northern lower 48 states and Alaska is still at the top. I liked Montana and Wisconsin next. If you can get past the darkness in the winter (it isn't half as bad as people say) then you're set. the longer winters aren't that bad either if you learn to take advantage of them like going skiing, snowshoeing, snow machining, ice fishing, dog sledding...
In the summer you can go dip-netting IF you are a resident. Steelhead fishing, salmon fishing, trout fishing, grayling fishing, pike fishing, halibut fishing...
In the fall you can fish, hunt,trap, and also two of my favorites when put together HIKING AND PHOTOGRAPHY.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to EVERYONE.
Sam
I've heard many people say that Alaska grows on you till you can't leave. Since I have lived all my life in Alaska then I can totally believe it. I have been through most of the northern lower 48 states and Alaska is still at the top. I liked Montana and Wisconsin next. If you can get past the darkness in the winter (it isn't half as bad as people say) then you're set. the longer winters aren't that bad either if you learn to take advantage of them like going skiing, snowshoeing, snow machining, ice fishing, dog sledding...
In the summer you can go dip-netting IF you are a resident. Steelhead fishing, salmon fishing, trout fishing, grayling fishing, pike fishing, halibut fishing...
In the fall you can fish, hunt,trap, and also two of my favorites when put together HIKING AND PHOTOGRAPHY.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to EVERYONE.
Sam
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm. ~Patrick F. McManus
Oldredbarn on Dec 23, 2011December 23rd, 2011, 6:43 pm EST
Paul,
Nice brother! Great story...
Merry Christmas to all from Detroit...
Spence
Nice brother! Great story...
Merry Christmas to all from Detroit...
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Lastchance on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 4:02 am EST
Merry Christmas to all.
Bruce
Bruce
Gutcutter on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 4:14 am EST
A very, Merry Christmas to my friends.
And a safe and healthy New Year to all as well.
And a safe and healthy New Year to all as well.
All men who fish may in turn be divided into two parts: those who fish for trout and those who don't. Trout fishermen are a race apart: they are a dedicated crew- indolent, improvident, and quietly mad.
-Robert Traver, Trout Madness
-Robert Traver, Trout Madness
Martinlf on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 6:12 am EST
Happy Holidays, Troutnuts. Thanks for your stories and tips over the year. It's time now to tie flies and dream of spring olives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
PaulRoberts on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 7:50 am EST
Glo-bugs/egg flies, my friends. They may not be pretty exactly but they are "hatch matchers" now. And they can even do double duty on the christmas tree.
Aaron7_8 on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 7:53 am EST
A very merry Christmas to you all. Many thanks to you all for enriching my life in the past year with your stories and photos. Many wishes for big fishes.
Lastchance on Dec 25, 2011December 25th, 2011, 5:13 pm EST
I hope you're all having a great Christmas day. Have a fantastic New Year!
Bruce
Bruce
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