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swampsinger

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These large mayflies hatch in sept in south eastern ontario. I believe they are hexigenia atrocudata due to thier size, wing markings, and time of hatch. I would like to tie a nymph to match, however I'm not sure what the nymphs look like.

 

post-59203-0-75595100-1477863424_thumb.jpg

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On Youtube they have lots of nymph patterns and a few videos of the real thing swimming. They are not taken often as bottom crawlers.

 

Gills along the sides made from ostrich, maribou etc... are very useful movment simulators.

 

Rocco

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Around here everything in the pond comes up on the hexes and nymphs are the most productive method to fish the pattern. We fish them just under the surface. Patterns vary by region though, around here they might range from beige/ tan to olive, brown head or thorax, orange thread.. Tying them with some orange in them seems to help and a soft hackle collar can be a good idea as well. Yours look bigger than ours and more golden toned, also ours come out in earlier summer... I'm sure there must be some more specific patterns to your area than I am describing LOL !

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Hi swampsinger,

 

I live in Ontario as well. A great hex nymph pattern is the full motion hex. Recipe is here.

 

I'll be honest that I have never had great trout fishing to hex nymphs in Ontario but since we get great hex hatches in some of the warmer parts of our rivers, i can tell you that smallmouth really love this fly.

 

Cheers.

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If you want to know what the nymph looks like I would suggest you look at the paintings in Schweibert's Nymphs. He also describes his own pattern:

 

Great Leadwing Drake Nymph (Hexagenia atrocaudata)

 

hook: 6-8 Mustad 79580

thread: brown 6/0

tails: dark olive-brown pheasant fibers

tergites: dark amber underbody with pale dorsal stripe and dark brown crescent-shaped markings

sternites: dark amber underbody with brown lacquer ventral markings

overbody: natural flat nylon monofilament

gills: dark olive-brown marabou thickly bunched at the sides and secured with fine gold wire

thorax: dark amber underbody with flat nylon overbody

wing cases: dark greyish-olive feather section tyed down over thorax

legs: dark amber mottled pheasant hackle

head: brown thread

 

I find his patterns a bit too elaborate, but this should give you a good start on your own nymphs. Remember that colouration often differs from one location to another. Try to catch and photograph some of you local nymphs.

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The late June/early July hex hatches in some areas -- including in major cities like Detroit with big water nearby -- can be so massive that they can blot out street lights and carpet the ground. Forget imitating them in such blizzards -- your fly gets lost in the mass. But they are there year round and steel head, trout and smaliies eat the nymphs all the time.

 

I like the rabbit strip nymph which has all the hair but a tuft at the end trimmed off.

 

Rocco

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It has been a couple of years since I posted about this. I have tried a couple of prototype nymphs but still not satisfied. The rivers that I fish and that I see these mayflies on are dominated by smallmouth bass and fallfish, no trout. I don't think the smallmouth ever get selective about feeding so its easy to fall into a pattern of fishing with steamers, they work quite well. I experiment when I get bored. The "atros" never seem to be a large hatch. I tie a large size dark brown klinkhammer that provides some fun when the spinners are active. As far as I can determine they are a burrowing /swimming black nymph. This summer I'll try and persevere with stream sampling other than picking up the odd rock. I think I saw this nymph on an episode of The new fly fisher. They were on "my" river and discussing crayfish and I'm sure they had one of these nymphs in the sample jar. I'll see if I can find a link.

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The lake I went to in Northern Ontario for 30 years. Apparently, it had an excellent hex hatch. Since I went up in mid to late July I usually missed it by a week or so. There were still some stragglers but nothing to get the smallies or whitefish excited. One year, I usually stopped in North Bay for the night before driving the final two hours to the pick up point, the motel I stayed in was close to Lake Nipissing and it looked like I was driving in a snow storm with Hexes all over the place. The last year I went up, I'd had picked up some free fly samples at my fly shop. One was a giant yellow stone fly nymph. It was easily 2 inches long. I knew there weren't any giant yellow stone flies in the lake, but I wanted to see what it looked like in the water. We were anchored in a cove in 10 feet of water, and having lunch. Tied it on. Just dropped it into the water and watched it sink. It got down a couple of feet and a 19 inch small mouth came out from under the boat and nailed it. Reading the thread the light went on, probably thought it was a hex nymph. Here's a picture of the fly. Doesn't look like any picture of hex nymph I've ever seen.

 

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I am planning to tie a couple hex nymphs for my niece and her husband's "Vermont" fly box. Figure either a size 6 or 8 2XL.

 

Swampsinger, those black nymphs might be Isonychia bicolor, otherwise known as the Leadwing Coachman or White Glove Howdy. The nymphs are black, usually with a white stripe down the back. Tied on a size 12 XL

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It could be an iso nymph they are also in that system. I have seen the isonychia spinners as well as march brown spinners [ephemera simulans]. A nearby river also has plenty of stone flies that are very close to your fly. these are the casings under a bridge. I usually use a large size pat rubber legs to imitate them.

 

post-59203-0-85913700-1549318218_thumb.jpg

 

post-59203-0-05959900-1549318305_thumb.jpg

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These large mayflies hatch in sept in south eastern ontario. I believe they are hexigenia atrocudata due to thier size, wing markings, and time of hatch. I would like to tie a nymph to match, however I'm not sure what the nymphs look like.

 

attachicon.gif IMG_0964.JPG

 

 

Here is a hex nymph. Note the dark dorsal surface and the lighter ventral abdominal surface. This bicolor shading is a characteristic of nymphs.

 

picture_580_large.jpg

 

So here is a complicated hex nymph pattern. Although it is complicated is does NOT carry the dark over light pattern to the tail which is surprising to me. Note that the dark over light in the real nymph above is present in the undulating abdominal section as well as the thorax.

 

 

However, I would suggest that you tie the Gary Borger Marabou Damsel Fly Nymph in the appropriate size and colors. The pattern swims just like hexes and I think the Borger pattern will work just fine. Tying instructions below/

 

http://www.garyborger.com/2011/04/04/marabou-damsel-nymph/

Damsel-Nymph.jpg

Damsel Fly nymph swimming

http://youtu.be/ymvb4C61VKs

Hex nymph swimming

 

 

 

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