What a lovely sight yesterday as the first Green Drake of the season flew across our local reservoir. Then I actually watched a mayfly nymph eclode into the adult insect on the water.

It didn't take me long to find a reasonable suggestion of the fly, a green body, ribbed with black silk and a fair old tuft of CDC tied on an upright position.

Along came the first trout and took the fly, towing out the line with it. A "can't miss" take.

And then the mayfly hatch stopped, and I couldn't catch another fish.

Yet the mayfly have appeared and I look forward to catching more trout on imitations of this wonderful insect.

Have the mayfly arrived in your area?

Aren't they Vulgata Ron? I thought they hatched out for several days before the trout switched on to them?

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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There have been quite a few hatching in the sunny South. I fished a beat of the middle River Piddle on Saturday 22 May, and caught the last 2 fish of the day (10 fish limit, C&R) on a hairwing mayfly dun when the hatch really got going after lunchtime...a 2lb plus wild brown going mental in a narrow, quite weedy chalkstream is fun, to say the least.

Similarly on the Avon Springs beat of the middle Avon on 25 May, although the dire need for a weed cut made fishing difficult.

I'm fishing the Piddle again this coming Friday.

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

I have seen both vulgata and danica over the years.

The insect I captured was quite large, 1 inch long including the setae with a greenish yellow overall colouration. It also had very marked final segmentation to it's body, I should have taken a photo.

I am fishing tomorrow and will attempt to catch one.

Vulgata is a good deal smaller,darker and greener than the Danica Ron.

Yes, I am convinced now it was danica, but hey, I don't want to be dogmatic about it.

Similar sized according to my references. The dorsal markings/patterns the best way to differentiate between the two species.



I felt sure E. vulgata would predominate where you area

If only as they are a species of slow rivers.

That maybe the case SC but if you saw the two species side by side in the flesh,the difference is as plain as the nose on your face.

Well its certainly Vulgata that predominate at the Lake of Mentieth and I would say they are only two thirds of the size of Danica at best.Maybe habitat has a role in the physical size of the insect.