Female Baetis (Blue-Winged Olives) Mayfly Dun Pictures

read no further if stories of personal revelation are not your thing...

at last i have actually seen these little wonders hatching on a not-very-nice day (overcast and 46 degrees) on a very nice creek. gee, they are neat! the cold kept them on the water for quite a while and they did indeed look just like little sailboats. the small eddies and riffles seemed not to bother them at all, and made the whole assembly look like a tiny square dance. now i understand what all the fuss is about.

the best/worst part was letting my store-bought fly drift among them. it was the right size, but the wing was too short and the hackle should have been dun, not grizzley. stream-side tying was out of the question 'cause my fingers were numb. i did get one fish, but he might have been after the real one next the imitation...

so, back to the bench and those awful tiny hooks. lots of baseball to tie to these days...;-)

Hook:#20
Thread: Deep Brown 8/0
Wings: Dark Dun
Tails: Dark Dun Split
Abdomen: Stripped Dark brown hackle
Thorax:Rusty Brown Dubbing
Legs: Light Brown or Cree hackle tied sparse

Does this sound good? Would like to here some comments about successful paterns