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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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Nightangler
Branson Missouri

Posts: 1
Nightangler on Sep 15, 2006September 15th, 2006, 6:04 am EDT
First off...

Very nice site Jason!!


next...

I would like alittle thinking of a good night time pattern for the White Miller (Nectopsyche albida )... I seen a few hatching... and the fish are hitting on white woollies buggers... I think if I got closer to the fly itself.. Id pick up alot more fish...


Any thoughts on a fly to tye??
GONZO
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681
GONZO on Sep 16, 2006September 16th, 2006, 9:29 am EDT
Here are a few simple flies you might try--

For active (skittering) adults: Try a white Elk-Hair Caddis, (+/-) #14. If you are tying your own, you might want to add a very pale green body and a light ginger or cream hackle under the light elk- or deer-hair wing.

For spent (flush in the film) adults: Use the same pattern minus the palmered hackle (or just fish the above fly untreated and soggy).

For submerged (drowned or diving) adults: The classic White Miller wet fly works (but add a pale green body if tying your own).

For emerging pupa: You probably won't find a commercial pattern to match the pupa; so tie a soft-hackle style with a pale green (or cream) body ribbed with pearl Krystal Flash, a tan shoulder (thorax) and a collar of the palest partridge you can find.

Good Luck!

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