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.
Fly Fishing and Trout Prey Videos
Fly Fishing and Trout Prey Videos
One of the most important things to a choosy trout is the one thing my close-up pictures can't show: motion. Fly tyers imitate motion by using lively materials, and fly anglers imitate it with subtle rod-work, but both need to understand how the real critters move. Most of these were shot long ago with an ancient digital camera.
In angling books, Leptophlebia mayfly nymphs have a reputation as poor swimmers. In reality, they're very adept swimmers, much moreso than most other mayfly nymphs categorized as "crawlers."
This is one of the earliest videos I made, and I was experimenting with a tank and background that didn't work very well.
Water boatmen are excellent swimmers, and you can see here how they use their oars to push themselves through the water, a motion easily imitated by the fly fisher.
The clumsy-looking mayfly nymphs of the genus Baetisca are surprisingly good swimmers.