There was some discussion of Hexagenia genus mayflies on a previous thread, and I thought it might be neat to see if other users could provide a few photos of some of these bugs, since they are impressive.

I usually run across at least a few late hexes (pictured: Hexagenia atrocaudata) each year on Penns creek. The more famous midwestern Hex (Hexagenia limbata) is a bug that I've never encountered in pennsylvania, although I understand that there are a few of them in the vicinity of Lake Erie and on the Susquehanna River. I believe there are also a few other species hatch that hatch in PA, like the "black mayfly" (Hexagenia bilineata). If anybody has photos of any PA hexes, I'd love to see them.

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There are enormous Hex hatches throughout the Allegheny and Ohio drainages, including in downtown Pittsburgh. Bugguide is calling them bilineata species, I don't know if that would be consistent throughout the drainages or not. Definitely hex's, not so sure on species.

While the blizzard hatches are on the big rivers, some smaller tribs in the upper Allegheny definitely get the same bugs (including wild trout streams), and I can verify that I have had very good fishing over them.

I have no personal pictures, so I'll offer the same links to local stories about them that I put on the other thread.

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20010608mayflies0608p2.asp

http://ulocal.wtae.com/_Mayflies/photo/9806425/62962.html

http://ulocal.wtae.com/_mayfliesjpg/photo/9806397/62962.html

http://bugguide.net/node/view/326392

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/s_463301.html

This is the only Pennsylvania hex I could come up with...

In all seriousness, this was taken on my car which was parked in Columbia, PA not far from the Susky. Is it a hex or yellow drake?

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You can answer that question if you can tell us if that bug has two tails or three. I can't tell from the picture. I believe that a yellow drake has three tails and Hexagenia limbata has two.

yellow drake, wings for one are tell tale hexs have a darker wing.

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This is a pic that I posted in the photo section last year. I was amazed at the amount of nymph shucks that were floating in the river each day after this hatch got into full swing.

I just saw a show on Nat Geo the other evening where they showed video of clouds of Hex's over one of the Great Lakes, it was pretty impressive.
In SE PA we have them on a lot of streams that are silty, Perky drainage has them, Bushkill in Easton has them, LL has them so the Saucon. That said they aren't a heavy hatch, but enough to get some big trout feeding on the occasionaly dry fly or spinner. The ones I've seen are dimorphic, females are mostly light yellow to cream, males are mostly brown on the black and yellow beneath.

They both get pretty dark as spinners. When they are ready to emerge you'll find holes in the muddy deposits along the slow silty sections of streams that have this hatch. The DH section of the LL has ideal habitat for them. Sorry no Pics, but I'll get some pics this year. The hatch goes from early August to late September.
I've seen them on the Main Stem of the Upper Delaware to.

that's a nice pic turkey, did you take that in pittsburgh?

Thanks midnight. It was in Pittsburgh. Just a bit above lock and dam #2. Id like to try to figure out how to fish these this year. It seems to be specifically a night hatch. There were shucks drifting by for days. Ive read (troutnut possibly?) that they hatch so thick in Michigan that they show up on weather radar. If you hear some refer to a Michigan Caddis, its a misnomer and they are actually talking about Hex's.

I am pretty sure that Turkeys is a yellow drake too....

I'm only seeing 2 tails on turkey's pic. So unless it lost a tail or I'm missing one, it's a hex, not a yellow drake.

It definitely had 2 tails. There are more pics in the photo section of the board. I realized quickly that trying to definitively ID bugs isn't very easy. Too many variations even from one drainage to the next. That and a lot of bugs get reclassified occasionally making the info in a lot of books obsolete. Im definitely no expert and any ID I make is nothing more than an educated guess.

2 flies to imitate the hex and yellow drake

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