Went for a stroll by the river tonight - next best thing to wetting a line i guess. Although i catch a lot of trout, my entomology is only starting to improve....so i now recognize Daddies ( genius!) , LDO's, Sedges and Mayflies ( discovered a local river that has some )

Tonight i was standing there like a tool trying to catch the bugs flying around me.

Initially i thought "spinners" as they seemed to be rust coloured and have two long tails, but the 2 flies i caught had three tails and pronounced orange eyes.

Are these Iron Blue's or BWO's or something ?

In terms of flight pattern, they fly in a very upright posture, more like a rocket, than a plane....

Its probably easy meat for you guys, but what are they ....and what do u use to imitate them?

Cheers .............

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

My Guess would be : BWO (sherry Spinner) I keep trying to catch one; and keep missing them!

- a feeling I know only too well.....


The fly with the red eyes and three tails is almost certainly a BWO Spider.

Spinners generally make swarms and return to the river, duns make a bee-line for foliage and cover.


Pheasant tail spinner patterns work for the falls, any number of small dries work for the hatches.

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Musha rig um du rum da

Yeah Spider I had an hour on our little stream this evening ,I counted four different olives species funnily it was the first time I 've come across BWO and IBDs at the same time , small sedge also. It seems the insect world were really getting it on this evening , there were a few olive uprights on the wing but the sherry spinner (bwo) fits closest to your description. PJ

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When you can see without being seen,strike without knowing why,and guess correctly where the best fish lie,they have taught you all they can.
(T.C. KINGSMILL MOORE)

Most likely to be Sherry Spinners, the spinners of the Blue Winged Olive. What size were they?

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Thanks lads for all your chip ins.

They were about 1/2 inch long , or less in body.

I thought spinners had two tails ?

They didnt seem to be going on to the water - more swaring around the nettles etc way up the bank .....

I have never fished a spinner .....am i missing out big time ?

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Chances are you have been fishing to fish that were on spinners but caught them them on a dun pattern or such. If you have fished the spent gnat you have fished the spinner fall of the mayfly etc, the thing that often alerts you they are taking the spinner is that often you cannot see the fly they are obviously feeding on as they lie akimbo on the surface often in poor last light . The rise is often a gentle kiss on the surface as the fish know their prey is almost dead, and as such an easy target. PJ

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When you can see without being seen,strike without knowing why,and guess correctly where the best fish lie,they have taught you all they can.
(T.C. KINGSMILL MOORE)

Although it's called a Blue Winged Olive Serratella ignita isn't one one of the Baetidae family, another species which anglers call olives. A characteristic of those olives is that they have two tails.
The family which the BWO belongs to, the Epemerillidae, have three tails both in their nymph form and as adult duns and spinners.

Your fly was only a half inch long, it's pretty certain it was a BWO.

BWOs can swarm well away from water, I've regularly seen them swarming a couple of hundred yards away from the river in the lee of some trees and out of the wind.

Fishing spinners can have its moments, a fall of sherry spinners usually provokes a good rise and a small spinner pattern obviously gives you the advantage.

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Musha rig um du rum da