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3. Heptageniidae

Ok since we haven't seen a bug for a while. Any thoughts on this one? Collected 5/19/2013. South Central PA.

Hi Eric-

I believe this female imago to be of genus Stenacron.

Why?

Your mayfly looks a similar to the the Stenacron mayfly I photographed 2-3 years ago.

WOW, beautiful photos, both of you guys!

Jonathon

One of the things I always thought of when seeing Stenacron was the length of their wing seems to me to be much longer compared to their body length than many other mayflies.

The mayfly in this pic is out of focus but you can see from this side view the long wing...



Then look at this iso which seems to have a wider wing but more in proportion with their body...



versus fat chubby wings...

Wing to body mass... I try not to think that deep.

Mack, here is Stenacron on the on the rocks...

For us colorblind folk, how would you describe that body color there? You can really see what Marinaro/Fox were talking about when they spoke of translucence and the difficulty a tiers has in trying to copy up to natures standards. Wow! Beautiful bug.

Spence

In order from top to bottom
#1-3, 6 Orange Cahill
#4 Slate Drake (although I am missing the white gloves)
#5Lemon Cahill
But that is just my local vernacular showing and by no means should be taken as Binomial Gospel
;)
JW

It's easy to see why us fly fisherfolk have always been so enamoreed with mayflies...We are probably the only people on the planet that think a "bug" is beautiful.

:)

Spence

No one's answered my dubbing/color question...How do I get there with those colors...I like to mix my own beaver dub...so 1/3 whatever, 1/3 whatever...etc...How do you attempt to reproduce such incredible colors???

I agree Spence, the sulfur colors are very tough to describe, let alone match. Schwiebert and other authors have often used the word "illusive" when discussing them - and with good reason. To make matters worse, they often differ dramatically between hatches and even individuals. Then we have to consider the good/bad news of the final arbiters of our efforts (the trout). They are often fickle about it as well. Usually, the closest match is the way to go, but not always. Sometimes a simple tan or gray version of the same pattern will outperform "the perfect match." Wished I knew why... :)

The "spectrumized" method of dubbing was popular for awhile but never achieved universal acceptance. I think the reason is because while the mixing of primary colors may appear to blend and look good in the hand, in macro (the way trout see it) the red, yellow & blue are clearly isolated and unnatural looking.

The best way I've found to match these illusive colors is to start out with a base that approximates the most dominant shade. It's usually a compromise between the lighter belly and darker back. A common misconception is that trout only see the belly. Not true. The back colors definitely have influence. Sometimes if the difference is dramatic it's even good to two-tone your flies with shellbacks or marking pens.

For this fly I'd start with amber, add a little orange and even less pink or perhaps a little cream or pale yellow if I need to lighten it a little. Spin some in your fingers to dense it up and approximate a fly body. Adjust as needed. I use this technique for all my hatch matching and will apply it to my same favorite patterns as the standard grays and tans that are always carried. Natural beaver belly is awesome stuff. Trout often key into a single color for some reason (perhaps the reason for spectrumized dubbing's occasional superiority) and I've often added say a little bright orange or yellow to the nat. beaver with great success.

Some guys worry about how dubbing looks wet or dry, but this is an unnecessary canard, IMO. While colors appear darker when wet, this is because they are being observed out of the water. When on or in the water they will look pretty much the same as when dry. A good example to demonstrate this is with a red floss body. Wet and out of the water it looks very dark - put it back in the water and it's bright red again.

Our Brown Drakes have that sharp line, if you will, between the lower bottom half of the fly and the top. Some tiers will wrap the body with a yellowish/cream yarn and then lay darker deer across the back of the abdomen, criss-crossing it with yellow or brown thread.

When I tie the little sulpher, the dorothea I have two different bits of mixed beaver. Near the tail and around the thorax the mixture has some orange in it and the other is a creamy yellow.

Looks good to me. :)

Spence

You know I went through a spell years back where I carried Gary Borgers little color booklet and kept notes as I went...Ok. There! I said it...Nerd!:)

Oldredbarn - there have been days when collecting a nymph I haven't found in the stream I'm fishing is WAY cooler than any of the fish I caught that day. LOL! Glad to hear there are others like me...

Spence,
My approach for say pink alberts (epeorus sp I think) is to use a very light dubbing over a thread that is in the realm of the overall color. In that case a hot pink under very sparse cream. It kind of answers the translucence issue .
JW

Spence -


Actually, I confess the same. :)

Lost mine several years ago and they are now out of print. Small digital cameras & smart phones have rendered it obsolete, though. What a boon these cameras are. The macro views show the heather subtleties that look solid in the hand. Really helps with dubbing selection.

Btw - I almost always rib the abdomens of my dubbed dry flies. Makes them more durable and captures the segmention very well.