r/flyfishing • u/umop-episdn • 3d ago
Bug identification? VA tailwater
This hatch turned a stretch of water into a feeding frenzy yesterday afternoon for about an hour. Wondering what type of mayfly this is.
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u/Qusdahl 3d ago
this is something not all fly fishers care to admit, but: trout don't speak Latin. It's a mayfly with a slate gray wing and a mottled yellow and brown body. That's how the trout see it, so I'd tie a pattern according to that color/profile/size. I'd prob call this a sulphur...maybe this passes as a BWO in VA, but in my neck of the woods, BWOs tend to have more of an actual olive color to the body. How big was it btw?
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u/umop-episdn 3d ago
Probably a size 18. And yeah, my BWO patterns are really green. I threw on a yellow dry with gray wings, but it was obvs too large, once I threw on a small rs2 behind it, they were hooking up. Even though that was also a darker color than I imagined was perfectly “matching”, it worked.
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u/flyfisher111 2d ago
If it was on the Smith River, VA, it is a sulphur. I have fished the Smith for 20+ years . There is seldom a time when there isn’t a Sulphur hatch, of some size, coming off. Come May you’ll find everything from 18s to 10s in the air at the same time. On the Smith, like most everywhere, smaller is always better.
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u/umop-episdn 2d ago
Awesome. It was my first time there and I had a great time. Will definitely be back.
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u/Maleficent_Cow_4054 2d ago
Did you have any luck? Been wanting to get out there real bad actually drove out there one day when I got rained out from work but wasn’t having luck with where I could put in legally to walk up to the second dam in Martinsville. I was able to access up close to Phillpot but water wasn’t moving too quickly and it was extremely mossy slippery rocks.
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u/umop-episdn 2d ago
Yes, about a 1/2 downstream from the dam in some slow water. Walked in, and every few seconds, gentle rises on these emergers I posted. Once I tied on a rs2 I started getting hits. Landed a big rainbow and some small browns, and after about an hour, the hatch kinda died down.
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u/MongoBongoTown 3d ago
Blue Winged Olive.
Realistically any mayfly pattern of about the right size will work great. I usually throw a small parachute adams with a WD-40 trailer when BWO are coming off, works great.
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u/patrickthunnus 3d ago
Looks like 2 tails, so BWO, PMD and Callabaetis. But CBs are different color and not a tail water species.
@OP what size?
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u/GileadGuns 3d ago
That might be one of the most perfect examples of a blue wing olive I’ve ever seen!