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Snowflake Mayflies

Scientific Name
MatchScientific Name
*Tricorythodes


This common name refers to only one genus.

Mayfly Genus Tricorythodes

These are very rarely called Snowflake Mayflies.
A cult following is something to which few insects can lay claim, but the tiny Tricorythodes mayflies certainly qualify. Their widespread, reliable, heavy hatches draw impressive rises of ultra-selective trout which demand the most of a technical dry-fly angler's skills.

It is surprising that such a great hatch took so long to come to the attention of fly fishermen. The Tricos were first introduced to anglers in a 1969 Outdoor Life article by Vincent Marinaro, who misidentified them as Caenis. By the early 1970s the identification had been corrected but Swisher and Richards still wrote in Selective Trout, "Few anglers are familiar with these extremely small but important mayflies." The next wave of publications boosted Tricorythodes to its current fame. I suspect their early dismissal was due in part to tackle limitations; anglers in the 1950s had no means to effectively tie and present size 22-28 flies.
Tricorythodes (Tricos) Mayfly LarvaTricorythodes (Tricos) Mayfly Larva View 1 Pictures
Collected June 15, 2002 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on June 26, 2011
Female Tricorythodes (Tricos) Mayfly SpinnerFemale Tricorythodes (Tricos) Mayfly Spinner View 9 PicturesI photographed this Trico alive, although it didn't have much time left. These things die very quickly after they mate and it's hard to rush them back to the studio.
Collected September 8, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on October 4, 2006
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