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.

View from Upper to Lower Titcomb Lake

From Titcomb Basin in Wyoming

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.

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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.

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.

Gills

Wbranch

York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635

Wbranch on Jul 24, 2007July 24th, 2007, 3:37 am EDT

Have any of the tiers here ever compared their success ratio with flies tied with and without gills? I'm not much of a nymph fisher anymore but will resort to that approach if it is obvious the riseforms are to subsurface life cycles. I've tied gills on larger hook sizes like #10 - #14 but it gets dicey on #16 - #18. I was wondering if ribbing on a nicely tapered abdomen wouldn't be enough to offer the appearance of gills.

I looked at the photo of the Dorothea nymph on the "Aquatic Insects" page and it appears to have distinct gills of a much lighter color than the abdomen. Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.

Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.