Size 4 possible 6 fly?

[Nymph-O-Maniac]

 

[SBecker]

Wild guess.....ISO spinner

 

[Maurice]

Hex

 

[dc410]

+1 on the Hex. Here is one I pulled off of a gas pump at the Sheetz at Clarks Ferry last week.

 

[ryguyfi]

Hex. Known from coming off of big rivers, but have been seen in smaller systems.


I believe they're the biggest mayfly in PA.

 

[GreenWeenie]

The yellow hex is a HUGE fly (close to 4” long from front of legs to ends of tails). I’ve been fishing a stream with an incredible hex hatch for the last 35 years (there was a great hex hatch last Friday night) and I tie my hex imitations on a size 8 and 10 4x long streamer hooks.

They are that big.

 

[Nymph-O-Maniac]

Front claspers to end of tail was as long as a cigarette

 

[PhilC]

That little mayfly in the background looks scared!

 

[pcray1231]

hex

 

[Maurice]

Nymph-O-Maniac wrote:
Front claspers to end of tail was as long as a cigarette

Claspers are on the rear of the abdomen (near tail) on the underside of the male spinner, used for mating. Hooking up!

Who knew the contemporary term for having sex in the younger generations vocabulary came from mayflys?

The front legs are called forelegs.

Cigarettes are called cancer sticks or coffin nails. Not to be confused with coffin flys.

 

[greenghost]

FACT: Clouds of hex mayflies can sometimes be seen on radar. Dem bugs 'r right big!

 

[albatross]

Nympho please give us a date and a stream...

 

[Chaz]

Hex spinner.

 

[Nymph-O-Maniac]

Maurice wrote:

Nymph-O-Maniac wrote:
Front claspers to end of tail was as long as a cigarette

Claspers are on the rear of the abdomen (near tail) on the underside of the male spinner, used for mating. Hooking up!

Who knew the contemporary term for having sex in the younger generations vocabulary came from mayflys?

The front legs are called forelegs.

Cigarettes are called cancer sticks or coffin nails. Not to be confused with coffin flys.

I wasn't aware of the techinicl terms. Thank you. Lol on the cig thing also.

albatross wrote:
Nympho please give us a date and a stream...

No stream. I live in Dauphin.

June 17th around Midnight.

 

[Lonewolve]

hex for sure... i have fished hexes on certain section of the Lil Lehigh, there are two sizes of em too usually start hatching end of june sometimes hatch is off an on till third week of july.
Fished it with Joe Kohler who showed me where they hatch and gave me sizes to tie.Used a butterfly net to get samples...been years since i fished that hatch.the darn bugs get spotted on radar because the hatch is that enormous in numbers.Kinda like the bridges that get closed when the white fly hatch is on the Susuquehanna.
Awesome pics thanx for sharing borught back some really great memories.
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace

 

[dc410]

I witnessed what I believe was a Hex spinnerfall last evening about 1/2 hour before dark on the Conestoga River near Lancaster. It only lasted for about 10-15 minutes and was not real heavy but the flies were huge bobbing up and down and generally working upstream. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch any as most of them seemed to be over a deeper section of water. I didn't see any topwater action involving this short lived hatch but it was really cool to watch. Anybody else ever see a Hex hatch on the Stoga? This was my first and I am just looking for some confirmation that it may have been Hex mayflies.

 

[Fishidiot]

Yep - almost certainly a Hex hatch.

I see 'em fairly frequently on warm water creeks on summer evenings (sometimes they're mixed in with white flies). In my experience, however, they don't bring many fish up. If you're willing to fish well after dark they can and do bring up fish.

 

[barbless]

A lake where I like to fish in Maine has been known to have a nice hex hatch. I haven't been up there to see it in many years, unfortunately.

The last time I saw a good Hexagenia hatch there, it was the 1970s, and I was real new to fly fishing. It's a warmwater lake that's packed with bass and perch, and they were all feeding on top. I tried using dries and a popper, but no dice. At all. Nice warm summer night, bright moon, all those huge flies and swirling fish, and I got none. They ignored the lures on my spinning rod, too.

If only I had known that the fish were nymphing- holding close to the surface and grabbing the bugs off just before they shucked off their nymph cases (which were all over the water). I'm sure a good-sized brown/yellow wet fly, like a green drake nymph or yellow stonefly nymph, would have taken fish as fast as I could put it out there. The hatch was on for at least two hours, from around 10pm to past midnight.

It was a riot just to watch, like all heavy hatches that boil the water with feeding fish. Gives you some idea of exactly how rich a healthy habitat really is.