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3. What say ye?

So by time of year and stream location as well as the attached photo I am thinking Hendrickson/Red Quill but even with the wide range of color fluctuation the body color looks too yellow to me.
Particulars not clearly indicated in the picture:
Size: #14 standard dry hook
Tails: two
Sorry guys I don't carry a tape measure so I can't give you a measurement in mm and I am not versed in the anatomical terms for mayflies.

I agree with your assessment but I think it is a recent hatcher. Not long out of the water. This is a good pic because it shows us the underside of the bug, the side the trout sees during emergence. The female is lighter than the "Red Quill" male...Could the coloration be due to eggs?

Spence

Hendrickson would have 3 tails no? Looks like a Hendrickson to me, but 2 tails in April usually means Q Gordon. That color is wrong for both though. What do I know anyway! CJ

It an ephemerellid female. Most likely a Henny. Wrong wing, body, legs and head structure for a QG.

Looks like a Henny to me too. Just missing a tail. And Spence may be right it's very recently emerged, although it looks paler than any I've seen, even for recent emerged ones. Could also be image lacking contrast having been zoomed in on. Wings are too dark for rotunda. Too early too, although ... who knows nowadays???

I've seen both light and dark color morphs of "Hendrickson" in both sexes and with both med and gray wings and some with very dark wings -in all permutations. Always wondered what was up with that.

Looks like 95% of the Hendricksons I see.

Paul,

Not sure if they are morphs or us anglers need to have our eyes checked? I have seen different tyers use everything from urine stained fox belly, to pink, to every shade of brown from light to dark, and tan super-fine dubbing.

We have all visited this topic before with the bug boys even chipping in...If you lay down your rod and nab any mayfly as its trying to emerge the bottom of the fly's color is interesting, if not shocking in some respects...Not long after they are in flux heading to adulthood and another shedding of their old self.

That nondescript cream/dirty yellow/tan shows up a great deal...There is probably little need to camouflage your bottom when you spend all your life with it stuck to the bottom or some rock. I wonder if the exposure to light may have something to do with it somehow?

Also, what does it look like to the predators below you when you are floating along in the meniscus trying to free yourself from your nymphal shuck? Maybe that lighter color helps them "hide" a bit with all that light shining down around you...Who knows?

Look at Jason's pictures of the Brown Drake...There is a defining line between the brownish top half of the body and the pale bottom.

In terms of the tail...Not every bug survives to adulthood with all its tails intact.

That is an interesting pic and we really don't know the effects of light or flash may have contributed, but that luminescent olive cast, near impossible to recreate, I've also seen in some of our invarias when they hatch.

Marinaro and Fox spoke of it and like we here spent most of their lives trying to get it right. Mother Nature says, "Take that boys! Match that if you can!" :)

Spence

Gentlemen,
Freshly emerged is perhaps an understatement. This bug literally had just broken out and climbed onto the frame of my net as I was photographing one of the trout in the other thread.
It is quite possible it was missing a tail or perhaps I just missed seeing it as I was in a hurry to get to the risers that were working behind me.
The females on this particular stream tend to be bright pink when they first emerge and quickly fade to a muted sandy gray.
I was a little befuddled only because a good many of the flies I was seeing on the water had a distinctly yellow appearance.

Ephemerellids are notorious for not only variability from watershed to watershed but also for dulling up considerably after eclosion. My experience with Hennies is not very extensive but with Western Green Drakes I've seen 'em emerge bright yellow green and turn duller olive in a matter of seconds. The same critter will be almost black by the time it is ready to molt.

Could very well be the instant of eclosion coloration. I've seen both dark (smoky) and light (tan) duns on the water at the same time. And I'm quite sure I've seen dark slaty ones emerge in front of me, although I could be mistaken. I can actually picture one particular time and believe I wrote it up in my journal at the time. Will look some day -probably some late April day a couple years from now. :)

My humble attempt at those Hennies.






Like most of the other ephemerellids I clumbsily try to imitate, I have several color variations for the same mayfly.

Don't be so hard on yourself, Eric. Those are beautiful flies, and I'm sure the fish at least a few fish agree with me.

Thanks Kyle. I'm not really being hard on myself. The flies work. It's just how I go about arriving at the colors I'm seeing on the naturals, I have no specific recipe for color combinations and once I find a dubbing mixture that seems to replicate it pretty well, I do not write anything down as I should. I just bumble through the process the next time I want to replicate it. I do it all from what is left of my memory. And I seem to tweak it a little each time. Those flies in particular are just a blend of Nature's Spirit Colorado Green Drake and Pink Cahill dubbings ribbed with olive thread.

Oh man does that process sound familiar, except for me it is with cooking. I will make dinner for my folks, they like whatever I made, then I have the hardest time replicating later because I didn't write a thing down.

Luckily, like my parents, the fish probably still eat it. Even if it is a little different.

Kyle,

Hell! I'll take a couple dozen! That is if we see Hennies at all this year! :)

Spence

Very pretty flies. Nicely tapered and slim abdomen with a more robust thorax. While the barred woodduck is a very good replication of the naturals tail it won't be giving you very much in the way of floatation. Unless of course your intention is to let the tail break through the meniscus and look more like an emerging dun.

Thanks Matt. They float just fine for me, and like you said in another thread this is how I assess their effectiveness ;)

Man! Putting that new rod in to the rotation...Big time! Nice!

Spence

Yeah it was definitely broken in after last Friday...

Clumbsily??? Those are fantastic! I keep looking at them and saying to myself..."that's it" that's the bug! Great mixing of colors, not too much pink and that greenish hue...spot on my man! CJ