help with bug I.D.

[d-mack]

[inline "Just some bug.001.JPG"]This little beauty landed on my car yesterday. I haven't seen one before and was hoping someone could tell me a little bit about it. It was pretty big, around two inches long including the tails. Pretty little bugger.....
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[flygoddess]

It is a Mayfly Dun
With the size you said, I am guessing Hexagenia or Ephemera....maybe a Drake.
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[macfly55]

I was looking that up at troutbum (and other sites) and I guess I was concentrating too much on the color along the top of the wings.. I kept thinking green drake but this one was too light in color.. guess I better start learning entemology... :-)

MacFly
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[flygoddess]

Me too Mac. The lines in the wings or lack of is what has me.
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[macfly55]

I noticed that also.. guess that is why I kept at the coloring on the top of the wing to maybe pick something else up on it.. but then my entemology ... sucks..LOL...

MacFly
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[d-mack]

Thanks FG! I looked at a bunch of pictures of Hexegenia's and I think that's what it is. The habitat adds up as well. They like to live in soft silt mud in slow moving water. This bug was only a few hundred yards from the Malad river up near Plymouth,UT. It was just so much bigger than any mayfly I've ever seen. It would be a riot to get into a big hatch and have some hungry trout whacken' them as they try to get airborne.
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[flygoddess]

I caught one in Idaho Falls and like you said...HUGE compared to other mayflies. This one was BRIGHT yellowish green.
As a fly tier, they are great cause they are so big, they help put in prospective when tying smaller ones
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[d-mack]

When I hear people talk about the "yellow sally" hatch on the Henries is this the type of bug they're talking about?
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[Dryrod]

[center][font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000][size 3]Hi there d-mack - a Yellow Sally is a stonefly.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000][size 3]Here is my version of a mayfly. Looks like I need to add a pair of hind wings - but then again can fish count that high? LOL[/size][/#008000][/font][/center]
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[macfly55]

if it looks good to the fish Im sure they will eat it.. :-)

MacFly [cool]
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[flygoddess]

Like Dry Rod said, Yellow Sally is a stoner, but a big part of the fishes diet.
The picture you posted is a LARGE Mayfly.
I took this Guys picture last night, any guesses on it?



All I can tell you is a brown Caddis fly worked great on the river.
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[Tarponjim]

That bug is a "mahogany dun." I won't look-up the latin because its meaningless. I saw mahoganys in swarms on two rivers I fished in Wyoming over the weekend. They are the largest "fall" mayfly, usually hatch in the mid-day and especially mid-afternoon, and they fall to the water as spinners just before dusk. (Perfect!) The Henry's Fork in Idaho is famous for them at this time of year, as are many other spring-creek and slower type waters. The Green in Wyoming has them good on cloudy afternoons during September and early October.

Any mafly imitation reasonably close usually works, and a rusty spinner at dusk is just deadly. I fished a #14 parachute Adams on a tough creek Saturday afternoon, and the normally-wary fish ate it up with a good drift. The spinner almost isn't fair, also in a #14, with a SKINNY body and cdc windgs.

Choose your fly size according to the water and the rise forms. One size bigger than the natural is always my choice, especially if naturals are all over the place.
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