What's your favorite dry or emerger Callibaetis pattern?

[Cabezon]

Interesting. The duns I see are lighter-bodied and have speckled wings, but I've never seen speckled wings on a spinner, and the spinners are always dark-bodied.

Hi Matt,
Unfortunately, I don't have Callibaetis pictures from Dry Falls. But here are some dun and spinner pictures from Leech Lake - much darker in the duns.
Duns


Spinners

This next spinner does have some color on the leading edge of its wings.


Steve

 

[Matt B]

Hi Matt,
Unfortunately, I don't have Callibaetis pictures from Dry Falls. But here are some dun and spinner pictures from Leech Lake - much darker in the duns.
Duns
View attachment 110806
View attachment 110807
Spinners
View attachment 110808
This next spinner does have some color on the leading edge of its wings.
View attachment 110809
View attachment 110810
Steve

Great photos! That last one shows a two-tone abdomen--dark dorsal and lighter ventral! Hard to tie that. That's where a marker might be handy.

 

[Reel fun]

How long is your dropper below your dry?

Around 12 to 14". I tie the PT with no extra weight so it doesn't sink too far. I'll never get tired of seeing that parachute disappear.

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

When dries or spinners are on the water, a size 16 std. Adams clipped flat on the bottom out performed anything on hebgen, Henry's Fork, and McDonald's Pond (RIP) for me. If they are keyed on emergers, a Quigley cripple is hard to beat. If it's windy, a feather duster in the film can be killer.

 

[Rob Allen]

I have had good luck with Compara-duns and Hares Ears.

 

[Brian in OR.]

Are the callibaetis spinners around you that paler tan color? I have not caught this hatch too often, but the callibaetis spinners I have seen in Washington have all had a dark gray body

Mainly use it at Hegben with no complaints from the fish, but like you i think the mayflies on our local water are a bit darker. I had some ties with darker wings at Hegben but was getting a lot of false takes.... John Kreft tied the one i showed specifically for the lakes in Central Oregon here's a nice write up on callibaetis lake patterns...

From his article:
Here’s a tip – be careful when matching colors on mayflies. The bottom side that the fish can see is a light tan, not the brownish-mahogany seen in the picture. I think that’s true for all mayflies.

https://www.johnkreft.com/callibaetis-mayflies/

 

[DFG]

This thread is very much appreciated! I fish a lake in N. Central OR that has a robust callibaetis hatch in the afternoon and evening, preceded by lots of sipping when the adults aren't visible. I've always taken that to mean that emergers are being taken just under the surface. Knowing about some proven imitations will be a confidence booster.

Do you typically do a super-slow retrieve to give them a bit of movement? I'm told, by a few anglers who have better luck there, that some movement is key. I have yet to figure this one out.

 

[Cabezon]

This thread is very much appreciated! I fish a lake in N. Central OR that has a robust callibaetis hatch in the afternoon and evening, preceded by lots of sipping when the adults aren't visible. I've always taken that to mean that emergers are being taken just under the surface. Knowing about some proven imitations will be a confidence booster.

Do you typically do a super-slow retrieve to give them a bit of movement? I'm told, by a few anglers who have better luck there, that some movement is key. I have yet to figure this one out.

Hi DFG,
It varies from day to day. Some days the trout want only dead-drifted flies and shy away from any fly movement. But I have had slow days that picked up when I got hits when I was picking up the fly to recast. It then clicked that maybe I should twitch the parachute fly a bit. And I've even had some success slowly trolling a parachute fly at the surface on other days.
Steve

 

[Roper]

Many years ago a young man that worked for me talked me into learning to fly fish. Got some casting lessons some gear and met him up at Chopaka. Tracy and Mike had a pop up trailer and they were tying flies when I got there. They called this one a Chopaka emerger. Just off the weeds in the south end we proceeded to fish them. First cast I got slammed by a 14 inch football. It was a hoot watching them slam the fly. Every now and then I’ll use one of these…

 

[Divad]

One of the lakes I really like has a strong spring hatch. The tails(?) are so friggin long, this thread reminds me I need to make a new baetis pattern for it in a few weeks.

 

[skyriver]

Many years ago a young man that worked for me talked me into learning to fly fish. Got some casting lessons some gear and met him up at Chopaka. Tracy and Mike had a pop up trailer and they were tying flies when I got there. They called this one a Chopaka emerger. Just off the weeds in the south end we proceeded to fish them. First cast I got slammed by a 14 inch football. It was a hoot watching them slam the fly. Every now and then I’ll use one of these…

View attachment 110946

I've had good luck with this style. I like Hare's ear for the body. When they get really aggressive I love stripping a Hare's ear Elk Hair Caddis minus the palmered hackle and sparse on the elk.
Or just an Adams wet fly or soft hackle.
Those are good days!

 

[Cowlitz Bottomfeeder]

I’m impartial, but the fish vote for the Quigley Cripple.

 

[fkajwg]

One of my favorite hatches is the callibaetis on some of the PNW lakes I fish. I love it when the trout are rising to the hatching flies. I usually fish a parachute Adams size 14 or 16 but always wonder if there are even more effective flies I should tie and fish. What flies do you prefer?

My experience has been that parachute Adams work sometimes just fine, but may be refused at other times.

I’ve settled on sparkle dun in gray as an emerger taken without hesitation or refusal, and similarity, a gray cripple.

14 or 16.


Jay

 

[Buzzy]

My experience has been that parachute Adams work sometimes just fine, but may be refused at other times.

I’ve settled on sparkle dun in gray as an emerger taken without hesitation or refusal, and similarity, a gray cripple.

14 or 16.


Jay

Jay - "Taken without hesitation or refusal", can I buy a couple from you? (jk) Until last year, Quigley's Cripple (mentioned above) had always been my go to emerger for two of my favorite BC lakes. They just worked and worked well (often taken without hesitation or refusal) but man, last late May and early June it got downright frustrating. The what seemed to be the same hatch we've come to know and love, happened and trout did take the emergers but we had many (far too many) refusals or just plain ignores. This happened on three different days last year. Herb, Keith and I tried variations on the themes; none of them were consistent. I guess that's why we have lots of flies to try out.

(Love to see a pic of your sparkle dun)/Pat

 

[fkajwg]

My 2 patterns for hatching Callibaetis on the left, and two good midge emergers on themright.

 

[fkajwg]

Jay - "Taken without hesitation or refusal", can I buy a couple from you? (jk) Until last year, Quigley's Cripple (mentioned above) had always been my go to emerger for two of my favorite BC lakes. They just worked and worked well (often taken without hesitation or refusal) but man, last late May and early June it got downright frustrating. The what seemed to be the same hatch we've come to know and love, happened and trout did take the emergers but we had many (far too many) refusals or just plain ignores. This happened on three different days last year. Herb, Keith and I tried variations on the themes; none of them were consistent. I guess that's why we have lots of flies to try out.

(Love to see a pic of your sparkle dun)/Pat

OK, I’ll confess, there was one day on Leech when they were taking Callibaetis and my sparkle duns, and then later they were refusing my fly even though the real bugs were still around. I switched up to a leech, caught a fish, and sampled it. It was now eating little antish/waspy things. So the fish had turned selective for those.

In b.c., sometimes they are full of shrimp and ignore Callibaetis.

Compared to a parachute Adams, the sparkle dun is more consistently taken, especially a newly tied on fly that floating well.

Jay

 

[@Dryflyphotography]

OK, I’ll confess, there was one day on Leech when they were taking Callibaetis and my sparkle duns, and then later they were refusing my fly even though the real bugs were still around. I switched up to a leech, caught a fish, and sampled it. It was now eating little antish/waspy things. So the fish had turned selective for those.

In b.c., sometimes they are full of shrimp and ignore Callibaetis.

Compared to a parachute Adams, the sparkle dun is more consistently taken, especially a newly tied on fly that floating well.

Jay

Just to make sure I am reading this right...the Sparkle Dun is the fly in the style of what I'd call a comparadun? Just tail, body and deer hair wings? I appreciate the coaching! Ron

 

[SurfnFish]

Just to make sure I am reading this right...the Sparkle Dun is the fly in the style of what I'd call a comparadun? Just tail, body and deer hair wings? I appreciate the coaching! Ron

 

[fkajwg]

Just to make sure I am reading this right...the Sparkle Dun is the fly in the style of what I'd call a comparadun? Just tail, body and deer hair wings? I appreciate the coaching! Ron

Yes.

The body should be gray and tied thin.

Sparkle Dun

Pattern Description:The Sparkle Dun is an outstandingly simple adult mayfly pattern developed by Craig Mathews of West Yellowstone, Montana. The pattern incorporates only three materials and all of them are cheap and commonly available. The Sparkle Dun was one of the first patterns to...

charliesflybox.com

Jay

 

[Buzzy]

OK, I’ll confess, there was one day on Leech when they were taking Callibaetis and my sparkle duns, and then later they were refusing my fly even though the real bugs were still around. I switched up to a leech, caught a fish, and sampled it. It was now eating little antish/waspy things. So the fish had turned selective for those.

In b.c., sometimes they are full of shrimp and ignore Callibaetis.

Compared to a parachute Adams, the sparkle dun is more consistently taken, especially a newly tied on fly that floating well.

Jay

Got me to chuckle with the "antish/waspy things". We had the same thing happen on the home lake in BC. There were fish coming up everywhere but we couldn't get but the occasional tug. Keith used his noggin, throat pumped a fish and found flying ants. Game on.