Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin

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.

Cedar sweepers line the fertile spring creek headwaters of a famous trout stream.

From the Bois Brule River in Wisconsin

Stream photos

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Male Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun Male Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun

Lateral view of a Male Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #308 in Washington

This dun emerged from a mature nymph on my desk. Unfortunately its wings didn't perfectly dry out.

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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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Big Browns facing the shore at night

COflyer47

Colorado

Posts: 3

COflyer47 on Jun 9, 2015June 9th, 2015, 10:57 am EDT

So I was up fishing the Taylor River near Gunnison Colorado this last weekend, I was fishing it at night to avoid the heavy crowds that can accumulate during the day along the upper Taylor and I came across something I have never seen before... some big browns facing the shore in little eddies, I'm not talking about really slow water just behind rocks providing a current break. I am relatively new to fly fishing and especially at night so I asked my brother in law who was with me what he thought of it and his thoughts were that the fish were sleeping? I was wondering if they were hunting for terrestrials? They did not appear to be feeding heavily and I didn't spend a lot of time trying to encourage them to hit my flys as there were aggressively feeding fish very near by. Thoughts??

RIP LIP

Wbranch

York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635

Wbranch on Jun 9, 2015June 9th, 2015, 11:51 am EDT

They weren't sleeping they were hunting! They were looking for mice to fall off the grass or one that decided to take a swim across the river. Next time you go take a couple deer hair mice tied on #1 or #2 hooks and use a short 6' leader ending in 1X or 0X and pitch them up against the banks and twitch them back to you and BTW Hang on!!

Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.

COflyer47

Colorado

Posts: 3

COflyer47 on Jun 9, 2015June 9th, 2015, 12:15 pm EDT

Nice! Thats what I was wondering about! I am going to have to load up on some flies before my next trip!

RIP LIP