I fish some the limestone rivers here in the West of Ireland (yes, lucky me!). Up until last spring I had not seen hatches of Iron Blue Duns over here and had given up hope of ever finding them. Then, last May I found a lone male (Jenny) spinner and this has raised my curiosity regarding the distribution of this wonderful baetis. I have fond memories of the trout going mad for Iron Blues as the hatched on the Don in Aberdeenshire and would love to find a local population within reach of me here in Mayo. My 1990 edition of An Angler's Entomology by Harris has a distribution map of Baetis Pumilus showing excellent distribution across ireland (P251). Why then am I not seeing large hatches of Iron Blues? Does anyone have information of the distribution of the Iron Blue species in Ireland?

C&N

The one I use for the UK is the National Biodiversity Network - limited though it is.

NBN Gateway - Search Results

but It doesn't cover Eire unforunately. It may be worth contacting them to find out if there is an equivalent

Another site which may be of some use is here
Baetis muticus

Malcolm

I'd always assumed, given their R Southern ~ Inspector of Fisheries for Ireland origin, that Harris' maps showed only the one form in Ireland. But if Nigrobaetis niger is in NI...


10km distribution of Alainites muticus in Great Britain and Ireland





10km distribution of Nigrobaetis niger in Great Britain and Ireland





10km distribution of Nigrobaetis digitatus (the scarce Iron Buel in Great Britain and Ireland

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Save the softmouth trout

Baetis muticus

Common in rivers. In fact the second most common member of the Baetidae family in Irish rivers. Very widespread but does not emerge in high numbers. Hatches mainly in April and May.

I never thought it was overly common in mayo, more likely to be found more east. I have seen good hatches of it on the Boyne system.

Have a look at,

Home

go onto the live map and you will see that indeed this insect is not present in a lot of mayo rivers.

Baetis niger, Baetis buceratus - not recorded in Ireland.

Baetis rhondani is by far the most common in Irish rivers.

Yes, according to those maps the more acidic rivers of the north and west are pretty much devoid of IBD but they do appear to be more common in the limestone rivers of the south Mayo/Galway area. I wonder why they are not hatching in larger numbers where they do occur? I recall the hatches in Scotland and the IBD would appear in their thousands during April/May.
C&N

Scotland and Ireland are different, there are some flies that hatch in Britain but you don't get them in Ireland and vice versa. Some rivers in close proximity to each other have differing hatches, so i would not really compare two countries!
The IBD is present and generally widespread in Ireland but according to the experts it does not really emerge in large numbers.
I have seen what i call good hatches on some rivers i fish, but not clouds of them or flies in their thousands!

An interesting thread indeed, we have some on the River Dee in North Wales. These can make an appearance at any time throughout the season. As it usually hatches early in the season in most places it is possibly down to the temperature of the water that suits it. It also makes an appearance in broken weather here on the Welsh Dee.
The River Dee is used as a pipeline between Bala and Chester, and unfortunately released water comes from way down in Llyn Celyn, this can drop the river temperature in the upper reaches by quite a few degrees when releases take place, which, does not auger well for the aquatics, but obviously suits the Iron Blue.

Incidentally I have recently submitted an artice to fly Fishing and Fly Tying Magazine about my experiences with the Iron Blue and a a few patterns that i use in a hatch, hopefully it will feature early in 2012.

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Gwilym Hughes
www.GwilymHughes.com