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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.

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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This is a small tributary of the East Fork of the Iron River in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. I visited it once and collected some bugs at road below a (former?) fish hatchery, but it looked too small to fish comfortably and I didn't try to catch anything.

Closeup insects by Troutnut from Schacte Creek in Wisconsin

Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Nymph from Schacte Creek, Bayfield County in Wisconsin
This Baetis nymph is quite a bit larger than any of the others I found in winter 2004. Abdomen segment 5 is only slightly pale while 9 and 10 are quite pale. The tail is banded at the tip. Its body measures about 9mm long. It's much larger than the other Baetis specimens I collected, and it has quite well-developed wingpads.

It's most likely a mature nymph from a very early-hatching brood. It comes from the headwaters of a very small, very spring-fed Lake Superior tributary, which wasn't at all frozen despite very frigid temperatures and 3 feet of snow on the ground.
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