Sulphur?

[bdhoover77]

Nope. Epeorus hatch underwater, and are better fished with a winged wet fly. This is a case where knowing the difference has a practical application.

Plus, why would I fly fish if I don't want to think about flies?

What winged wet do you like for a sulphur?

 

[OldPriest]

That is 100% a sulphur. Your first pic was a BWO.

Agree on the Baetis, but the second image imho isn't a sulpher (ephemerella Dorthea), I do believe, specifically due to size (18-20) and color, that this is a PMD, or PED (Ephemerella excrucians). I had not seen these on LV rivers in years past, but have seen them over the last couple weeks.

 

[Bamboozle]

We can argue entomology but I can promise you that the trout don't count and couldn't care whether it has two or three tails. Match the size, color, and phase of the hatch the fish are keying on. Entomology is for nerds. Tie on a sulphur and go catch fish. Don't overthink it.

I couldn't have said it better...

I've been fishing Sulphurs since the time Theodore Gordon took me out to the Brodhead as a kid. I've been fishing them regularly since then in the Lehigh Valley, Poconos and South Central PA.

I use the same Sulphur imitations everywhere and my imitations happen to have two widely splayed tails. I don't care if the real bug has three or thirty three tails. All I know is MY imitation floats better and lands upright with two tails. I also tie an all white version for low light level fishing and the fish could care less.

What I have learned since the days when I used to carry a copy of the "Instant Mayfly Identification Guide" in my vest is the fish don't give a $#!+ if you know the entomology nor do they speak Latin...

And what happens when they change the classification of a bug...

Do the trout get a memo that it's OK to eat a Stenacron interpuntatum after they been have enjoying Stenonema canadense for decades prior??

I carry around a small metric scale and IF capture a real bug that I don't have an imitation of in my box, I measure the length of its body in millimeters and note the color. When I get back to the tying bench I whip up a fly that matches the size and color and it instantly becomes the bug I caught on the crick.

To each his own, but fly fishing has become more more enjoyable for me since I stopped worrying about the entomology and started referring to my flies as a size X cream, olive, brown, yellow or rust colored bug.

 

[earthbound]

I couldn't have said it better...

I've been fishing Sulphurs since the time Theodore Gordon took me out to the Brodhead as a kid. I've been fishing them regularly since then in the Lehigh Valley, Poconos and South Central PA.

I use the same Sulphur imitations everywhere and my imitations happen to have two widely splayed tails. I don't care if the real bug has three or thirty three tails. All I know is MY imitation floats better and lands upright with two tails. I also tie an all white version for low light level fishing and the fish could care less.

What I have learned since the days when I used to carry a copy of the "Instant Mayfly Identification Guide" in my vest is the fish don't give a $#!+ if you know the entomology nor do they speak Latin...

And what happens when they change the classification of a bug...

Do the trout get a memo that it's OK to eat a Stenacron interpuntatum after they been have enjoying Stenonema canadense for decades prior??

I carry around a small metric scale and IF capture a real bug that I don't have an imitation of in my box, I measure the length of its body in millimeters and note the color. When I get back to the tying bench I whip up a fly that matches the size and color and it instantly becomes the bug I caught on the crick.

To each his own, but fly fishing has become more more enjoyable for me since I stopped worrying about the entomology and started referring to my flies as a size X cream, olive, brown, yellow or rust colored bug.

Ok. I'm just going to mark you down as bwo/baetis.

 

[luke_m]

Agree on the Baetis, but the second image imho isn't a sulpher (ephemerella Dorthea), I do believe, specifically due to size (18-20) and color, that this is a PMD, or PED (Ephemerella excrucians). I had not seen these on LV rivers in years past, but have seen them over the last couple weeks.

This seems most likely, ignoring the number of tails and my ability to accurately count and report them…

They’re still hatching today, and are coming off right around dark. Definitely smaller than a 16, and the trout were rising to them.

I have just been using a size 16 parachute in sulphur colors and have landed some fish, so I’m not too concerned with the fly pattern. I am just interested in understanding the hatches and their chronology through the seasons. It just seemed too early for E. dorothea based on what I’ve read in the Meck and Weamer guide, and in Mike Heck’s Spring Creek Strategies, so I was curious.

Definitely saw some big sulphurs come off today, so hopefully that will get into full swing over the next week or so.

 

[blitzinstripes]

This seems most likely, ignoring the number of tails and my ability to accurately count and report them…

They’re still hatching today, and are coming off right around dark. Definitely smaller than a 16, and the trout were rising to them.

I have just been using a size 16 parachute in sulphur colors and have landed some fish, so I’m not too concerned with the fly pattern. I am just interested in understanding the hatches and their chronology through the seasons. It just seemed too early for E. dorothea based on what I’ve read in the Meck and Weamer guide, and in Mike Heck’s Spring Creek Strategies, so I was curious.

Definitely saw some big sulphurs come off today, so hopefully that will get into full swing over the next week or so.

There's a lot of speculation that historical hatch timings are being affected by climate change. Traditional predicable hatches are showing up consistently early by a few weeks. And I'm some cases they lack the consistency when they do occur. Rather than fairly tight, consistent hatches they are spread out and occuring at a lighter density. Not everyone seems to share these views and observations, but I know I'm my personal observation that things just seem "screwy". And not just this year. Some of my favorite waters used to have phenomenal Hendrickson hatches and they have been sporadic at best over the last few years. Water quality seems to be improving on those streams, so I'm not sure we can blame pollution. Although I still speculate that agricultural herbicides (Round Up) are to blame for some of this.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I couldn't have said it better...

I've been fishing Sulphurs since the time Theodore Gordon took me out to the Brodhead as a kid. I've been fishing them regularly since then in the Lehigh Valley, Poconos and South Central PA.

I use the same Sulphur imitations everywhere and my imitations happen to have two widely splayed tails. I don't care if the real bug has three or thirty three tails. All I know is MY imitation floats better and lands upright with two tails. I also tie an all white version for low light level fishing and the fish could care less.

What I have learned since the days when I used to carry a copy of the "Instant Mayfly Identification Guide" in my vest is the fish don't give a $#!+ if you know the entomology nor do they speak Latin...

And what happens when they change the classification of a bug...

Do the trout get a memo that it's OK to eat a Stenacron interpuntatum after they been have enjoying Stenonema canadense for decades prior??

I carry around a small metric scale and IF capture a real bug that I don't have an imitation of in my box, I measure the length of its body in millimeters and note the color. When I get back to the tying bench I whip up a fly that matches the size and color and it instantly becomes the bug I caught on the crick.

To each his own, but fly fishing has become more more enjoyable for me since I stopped worrying about the entomology and started referring to my flies as a size X cream, olive, brown, yellow or rust colored bug.

I tend to agree with the overall idea here, but there is obvious practical value to knowing some specific names, at least at the level of sweeping generalization.

I'm not out here bumping into other folks who fish the Battenkill saying, "Hey, have you seen any of the pinkish, brownish size 14 ones that start to hatch around 1 PM on afternoons in May yet?"

(Which, no one has, for some godforsaken reason...)