Iron Blue Quills

This is one of the most important species of the Baetidae family. It is distributed across the country, but most of its fame comes from excellent hatches in the West where it is probably the most populous member of the Baetidae family.

Diphetor hageni has two former names used in angling literature, Baetis parvus in the West and Baetis divinctus in the East.

This was the last species remaining in the the genus Pseudocloeon, a name from older nomenclatures familiar to many anglers. This species lacks hind-wings.

Eastern anglers used to know these important mayflies by the storied name of Baetis vagans. The much larger and late Fall hatching Baetis tricaudatus is considered an important Western species with its own tradition, but entomologists recently determined that they are both in fact the same species. The scientific conventions guiding entomologists do not account for a name's regional fame among fishermen, and new or obscure species names may replace their old favorites. Sometimes taxa with disparate traditions are combined. Baetis vagans is one such casualty.

Fortunately, trout think like Shakespeare: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The rose that was vagans has lost none of its charm.

This species often emerges together with Paraleptophlebia strigula and Paraleptophlebia guttata, and the combined effect can be a good fishable hatch. The latter two are much less famous than mollis, but Knopp and Cormier say they are more reliable.