February 20, 2020
There are a lot of 2’s in today’s date – seems appropriate to post part 2 of My Favorite Flies series! This post is on Mayflies.
Mercury Flashback Barr Emerger PMD & Barr Emerger BWO. Two of my favorite mayfly imitations.
Mayflies go through an incomplete metamorphous – meaning they only go through 3 stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The definition of a nymph according to Google is “an immature form of an insect that does not change greatly as it grows e.g. a dragonfly, mayfly, or locust.”
According to Jim Schollmeyer’s Hatch Guide for Western Streams, “mayfly nymphs go through 20 to 30 molts as they grow, and between the last few molts the wing pads darken as the wings develop”. Also the adults go through two phases referred to a “dun” and “spinner”. A dun is the 1st phase and is when the adults first emerge from their nymphal shuck. They then fly to streamside foliage – that is assuming they don’t get eaten by a trout first!! In the dun stage they are not able to mate. The mayfly will stay in the streamside foliage from between a few hours to up to three day as they mature into the spinner stage. Once in the spinner stage they fly into swarms where they mate, the females lay their eggs on the stream surface or borrow beneath to attach their eggs to submerged vegetation or rocks – then die. The males die after mating – and together they create what is known as a “spinner fall”.
Furthermore, mayfly nymphs are divided into 4 different categories - burrowers, clingers, crawlers, and swimmers (Jim Schollmeyer). As they mayflies shed their shucks and emerge into duns – they are in the surface film waiting for their wings to dry and are vulnerable to trout. So tying mayfly emergers and fishing them when the hatch is on is a good idea. It is easy to identify the duns once they’re on the surface – as they look like tiny sailboats floating down the stream with their wings straight up in the air. You’ll hear this a lot – as John Gierach wrote in his book, Another Lousy Day in Paradise referring to the sailboat description “It is a term that is often used, I’m sorry - but they really do look like sailboats. I didn’t make it up”. Suffice to say this stage provides great dry fly fishing! The last stage to concentrate on is the spinner fall. This is something that I haven’t fully developed into my arsenal yet. In reference to Tricos - Pat Dorsey writes in Fly Fishing Guide to the South Platte River “fishing drowned Trico spinners is one of the most overlooked parts of the hatch.” So this is something that I’m working on.
When tying mayflies to fish in Colorado, I’ve concentrated on the BWO, PMD, and Tricos - in 3 of their stages, nymph/emerger, dun, and spinner – with most of my concentration on the nymph/emerger and dun. These three mayflies begin to hatch in March and continue into November – so they are worthy of a lot of attention for the fly fisherman!! It’s amazing to me that BWOs hatch on Pueblo Tailwater (Arkansas River) in December and January. But these are the most hardy of the mayflies and seem to like cold, nasty weather. All things being equal in the winter – I’m drawn to the Tailwater because of the possibility to fish dry BWOs to rising fish.
BWOs are swimmers and prefer faster water. I've witnessed this when Brian and I seine and put the nymphs in a water jar to observe. The baetis swim and dart around while the midges and caddis' are almost stagnant. Typically, BWOs begin to hatch in March and go until mid-May. Then reappear in a smaller version late-August and go until mid-November, with Pueblo Tailwater being the exception. The hatch can begin in late morning and go until 1p or so – or it can be later in the day, dependent on time of year and water temperature.
Unless noted, I’ve tied all the flies shown.
My favorite BWO pattern in the nymph/emerger stage is the Barr Emerger. I can’t count how many fish I’ve landed with this fly. I tie it with a little twist – as I use brown antron for the tail instead of brown hackle feathers - as the antron resembles a trailing shuck of the emerger. Another fly that has proved effective is the Stalcup Baetis. Other favorites in this stage are Chocolate Thunder, Sparkle Wing RS-2, RS2, Pheasant Tail, JuJu Baetis, and WD40.
I fish these patterns in a 3 tandem rig – usually with a Pheasant Tail in the lead, followed by a Stalcup Baetis and then a Barr Emerger, RS-2, JuJu Baetis, or WD40 at the end. These will be in sizes 18 to 24 depending on time of year. A dead drift is essential and as I mentioned in previous posts - I like to let the line set at the end of the drift or lift it in front of feeding fish.
Barr Emerger, Stalcup Baetis, Beadhead Pheasant Tail (Top row, left to right). Gray Sparkle Wing RS-2, WD40, Mercury Pheasant Tail (2nd Row, left to right). Black Sparkle Wing RS-2, JuJu Baetis, Chocolate Thunder (3rd row, left to right).
I didn't tie the JuJu Baetis.
I was recently doing some research on the Pheasant Tail pattern and was reading The History of Fly Fishing in Fifty Flies by Ian Whitelaw. The Pheasant Tail nymph was developed by a renown guide, author, and fly fisherman named Frank Sawyer in the early 1900s. It was to imitate a drifting and emerging Baetis. In explaining how to fish the Pheasant Tail, Frank developed the Induced Take. To implement the Induced Take, the angler positions himself upstream and across from feeding trout. The fly is cast upstream to allow the fly to sink - on a dead drift - to level of the feeding fish. When in front of the fish, the angler stops the rod and slightly lifts it to imitate an emerging nymph. Frank mentions that you may not need to set the hook as the strikes are usually very aggressive and the fish essentially hooks himself. I can attest to that - the hit using this technique is as close to a fish aggressively taking a dry as you can get!! It's amazing to me that since I recently started to use techniques like this and similar to it - which I just happened upon - I've now read 3 different articles, by different authors that explain using this technique in slightly different ways!!
Another technique I use is a Dry/Dropper set up. I have a couple of different set-ups, one is with an Amy’s Ant or a Puterbaugh Caddis as the “Dry”, followed by a Copper John as the "Dropper" and the target fly – a Barr Emerger, JuJu Baetis, or RS2 for example – hanging off the Copper John. I’ll use this in the afternoon when there is no hatch taking place. When the mayflies are hatching, I’ll use a dry – either a Parachute Adams in the lead followed by a Barr Emerger (either a wet or dry).
Puterbaugh Caddis, Barr Emerger BWO Dry (Top row, left to right). Red Copper John and Black Flashback RS-2 (2nd row, left to right).
I didn't tie the Black Flashback RS-2.
PMDs come out in late June and last into late August. They are crawlers and prefer slower water with a lot of aquatic vegetation, hatching mid-morning and into early afternoon. PMDs are chunkier than BWOs and are a light brown to yellowish in color. I use the same technique to fish the PMDs as mentioned above for the BWOs. My go to PMD is again the Barr Emerger. I tie this the same as the BWO Barr Emerger, except they are a little fatter and I use lighter tans to light Cahill for the color. The only other one that I use on a regular basis is the Mercury Pheasant Tail PMD. I do use a Split Case PMD and Sparkle Wing RS2 PMD occasionally – but have had limited success with them.
Barr Emerger PMD, Mercury Bar Emerger PMD (Top row, left to right). Sparkle Wing RS-2 PMD, Split Case PMD (2nd row, left to right).
I didn't tie the Split Case PMD.
Like the PMDs, Tricos are crawlers – so you'll also find them in slow moving water. They’re small – one of the smallest mayflies - and chubby, the males are black, and the females have an olive green body and a black head. They begin to hatch in mid-to-late June and last into late September. The females hatch in early morning and the males hatch in late evening. They molt into spinners on the streamside foliage and mate in swarms.
Pat Dorsey, John Barr, Craig Matthews, and others advocate being very observant as to what is happening in your surroundings before rigging your fly line. Is there a hatch taking place, what are the fish doing – are they rising, what is in the streamside vegetation, etc. I can attest to the importance of practicing this. Once when fishing the Cheesman Canyon – as I was getting my gear on (I backpack my gear in and gear up streamside) – I noticed fish rising to Tricos right next to me in the Ice Box section of the river. I guess I didn’t have to be that observant to notice!! But anyway, I rigged up a Parachute Adams BWO followed by a Black Vis-a-Dun Trico. Within 45 minutes I landed 3 very nice trout – and missed about as many. A great way to start the day!!
To imitate Trico nymphs I will use a small black RS2, or a WD40 – and fish them in a dead drift, 2 fly tandem. Pat Dorsey mentions his Fly Fishing Guide to the South Platte River “A size 24 olive Pheasant Tail (with a full Peacock thorax) is a good option and in most cases works when you’re trying to imitate a Trico nymph” – so I’m going to tie some of these up and give them a try this summer – as I need to expand my repertoire.
Black w/White Wing Case WD40, Black WD40, Olive WD40 (Top Row, left to right). Black Sparkle Wing RS-2, Black Flashback RS-2 (2nd row, left to right).
I didn't tie the Black Flashback RS-2.
My go to dry flies for all the above mayflies are the Sparkle Dun and the Improved Sparkle Dun – whether BWO or PMD. I will fish this behind a Parachute Adams. And that’s that! For the Tricos, I fish the Matt’s Midge, John Barr’s Vis-a-Dun, and various Spinner patterns. These are all fished in a dead drift – which is essential when fishing dries.
Sparkle Dun BWO, Improved Sparkle Dun BWO, Trico Spinner (Top row, left to right). #20 Matt's Midge, Barr Vis-a-Dun Trico, Parachute BWO (2nd row, left to right). Sparkle Dun PMD, #24 Matt's Midge (3rd row, left to right).
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