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.

Neversink Gorge (Wolf Brook) in New York

Stream photos

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Skwala (Large Springfly) Stonefly Nymph Skwala (Large Springfly) Stonefly Nymph

Dorsal view of a Skwala (Perlodidae) (Large Springfly) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington

This Skwala nymph still has a couple months left to go before hatching, but it's still a good representative of its species, which was extremely abundant in my sample for a stonefly of this size. It's obvious why the Yakima is known for its Skwala hatch.

6 Recently Added Photos

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.

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.

Gray Drake Photos

Siphlonurus quebecensis (Gray Drake) Mayfly Nymph

5 Pictures

Dorsal view of a Siphlonurus quebecensis (Siphlonuridae) (Gray Drake) Mayfly Nymph from the Delaware River in New York

I photographed this nymph in the middle of molting between one instar and the next (not hatching).

Collected May 12, 2007 from the Delaware River in New York

Added by Troutnut on May 18, 2007

Collected May 12, 2007 from the Delaware River in New York and added by Troutnut on May 18, 2007

Oldredbarn

Novi, MI

Posts: 2600

Oldredbarn on May 12, 2010May 12th, 2010, 10:47 am EDT

Jason,

These are absolutely wonderful photos! What lens did you use?

I have always thought that when the mayfly molted it did it somehow along the same lines as when it's emerging in to the adult. Where the wing pad splits and they basically emerge through that opening. This appears more like a snake shedding its skin and it appears to have split along the bottom of the insect and the exuviae just flakes off.

The detail of the veins throughout is incredible.

I guess there is nothing "gray" about the younger version of the nymph, eh?! I hope you haven't started Spence in to thinking that he needs to tie up some transitional nymphs! It's bad enough now all the stages we are trying to imitate!

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