Articles about Fly Fishing

Feature Articles

Editorials

In Defense of "Latin" Names

The Basics

Expect this section to expand soon with original, interesting articles -- not overdone titles like Slight Variation #1958437 on Fishing the Blue-Winged Olive Hatch or Yet Another Tired Angler's Sentimental Scotch & Cigar Memoir.

Random odds and ends:

Feature Articles

Mayfly Dun to Spinner Illustrated by Troutnut

When mayfly duns pop out of the water and fly away, they aren't yet officially "adults." They have one more step before they're ready to mate: to perch on streamside vegetation and molt one more time into the stage scientists call "imago (Imago: The sexually mature adult stage of the mayfly is called the imago by scientists and the spinner by anglers.)" and we call "spinner." This article shows step-by-step close-up photos of a Leptophlebia cupida (Black Quill) dun molting into a spinner, and it explains what's going on inside the mayfly. Read more...

An Isonychia Nymph Emerging by Troutnut

As I prepared to set foot for the first time in the Catskills' storied Esopus Creek, I noticed an Isonychia bicolor nymph crawling out onto a rock at my feet. I pulled out my handy little camera and started snapping pictures. Read more...

2012 Alaska Range Caribou Hunt by Troutnut

I backpacked several miles off the Denali Highway in the heart of the Alaska Range, searching for a bull caribou during the peak of the area's scenic majesty. Read more...

Editorials

In Defense of "Latin" Names by Troutnut

There is a rising chorus of curmudgeons who decry the use of Latin names for bugs, ridiculing the vocabulary contests we hold around the fireplace of their imaginations. In reality we use scientific names because they're the less confusing way to swap practical advice about the details of each hatch. Read more...

The Basics

Understanding the Taxonomic Classification System (Phylums, Genera, and All That) by Troutnut

Learn the handy system by which biologists arrange all living things. The Aquatic Insects section of this site will be easier to navigate, and make more sense, for readers who understand the basics of the taxonomic system. Read more...

About the Troutnut by Troutnut

Once in a while somebody asks questions about the guy behind this site, so I've provided the answers here. Read more...

Interpreting Hatch Information by Troutnut

Some important background information will help readers get the most out of information about fly hatches on this website or in any angling entomology book. Aquatic insects are complicated and unpredictable, and emergence dates, times, and habits often deviate from the "typical" behavior. Learn how to predict and understand the most common deviations. Read more...

Jargon Defined:

Duns: Mayflies have two adult stages. They first emerge from the water as duns (scientifically known as the subimago stage). They then molt into the spinner (imago) stage, in which they mate and die. Sometimes the word "dun" is confusingly used to refer to a brownish gray color in fly tying materials.

Emergence: The transformation of a nymph or pupa into the adult winged stage of an insect. The term may refer to the emergence of an individual, or the daily or yearly event in which all individuals of a species emerge.

Imago: The sexually mature adult stage of the mayfly is called the imago by scientists and the spinner by anglers.

Molt: When aquatic insects with hard exoskeletons (like mayfly and stonefly nymphs) grow bigger, their exoskeleton does not grow with them. Instead they grow a new, larger one underneath and shed the old one when it's too small. This process is called molting.

Nymph: The juvenile, underwater stages of mayflies, stoneflies, dragonflies, and damselflies and other aquatic insects whose juvenile stages are covered by hard exoskeletons. The word can also refer to the fishing flies which imitate these creatures, in which case it is used as a blanket term for flies imitating any underwater stage of an invertebrate (except for crayfish and leeches).

Spinner: There are two winged stages of adult mayflies. They emerge from the water as duns, molt on land (usually) into their fully mature stage, spinners. As spinners, they mate, lay eggs, and die.