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.
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JOHNW on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 10:40 am EDT
OK so here is a specimen I collected about 5yrs ago on the Falling Spring. We usually see a few scattered duns and spinners mixed with sulphurs (invarias I think). That year these things hatched en masse.
Best ID I've gotten was a Yellow Drake so I'll turn it over to you all.
Best ID I've gotten was a Yellow Drake so I'll turn it over to you all.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 10:59 am EDT
John, that is indeed a female yellow drake (Ephemera varia)--a beautiful mayfly.
JOHNW on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 11:46 am EDT
OK why isn't the image coming up?
Gonzo the thing that really confused me on this was the timing of the emergence. Most of the Chambersburg streams see yellow drakes in mid June; on FSB it is mid May.
Gonzo the thing that really confused me on this was the timing of the emergence. Most of the Chambersburg streams see yellow drakes in mid June; on FSB it is mid May.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 11:50 am EDT
Yeah, that is a little strange, but I have heard of YDs emerging on a much earlier schedule on some other streams. I don't think they were in PA, though. I'll try to track one of those examples down for you, John.
GONZO on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 12:47 pm EDT
John, Knopp's Mayflies has an emergence chart for Connecticut that shows the YDs emerging mostly through May. This is in contrast to most of the other Eastern/Midwestern charts that reflect the more typical June/July period. I don't know what causes these differences, but they don't seem to reflect the usual north/south variations, and even elevation changes would not explain the difference in timing you see from one local stream to another. Perhaps Konchu has some insight into this.
Taxon on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 12:57 pm EDT
OK why isn't the image coming up?
John-
You need to change IMG and /IMG to
img and /img.
Wiflyfisher on Jul 26, 2007July 26th, 2007, 1:06 pm EDT
Actually, the way Jason has it setup you can either link to an image or embed an image from another page inside your message by referencing it's URL.
Click here for the forum codes
Click here for the forum codes
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
JOHNW on Jul 27, 2007July 27th, 2007, 12:42 pm EDT
Thats better! Thanks for the help.
JW
JW
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
Martinlf on Jul 28, 2007July 28th, 2007, 9:17 am EDT
Great photo; I can only hope that the blitz of these that came five years back happens sometime when I'm on the stream. And that I have flies for it.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
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