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.
This one was surprisingly straightforward to identify. The lack of a sclerite at the base of the lateral hump narrows the field quite a bit, and the other options followed fairly obvious characteristics to Clostoeca, which only has one species, Clostoeca disjuncta.
Troutnut on Sep 22, 2019September 22nd, 2019, 4:18 am EDT
This trip was all streamers. Caught four pretty good browns and missed several others. The water was high from recent rains, over 2X the normal flow for this time of year.
The colors are fairly natural. All digital photos have "enhanced" colors, whether manually or automatically behind the scenes, but I try to get them as close as possible to what I remember in-person. That big brown was gorgeous.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist