A forum to discuss tying and fishing wingless wet flies and other soft hackle fly patterns
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John I totally agree with you, on the Madison River the Epeorus Albertae ( pink Lady) has become much more prevalent and there is much more interest in fishing the hatch but instead of concentrating on the emerging phase I have seen many anglers working the dun and spinner phases.ForumGhillie wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:11 pm Thank you for your response.
I actually think the Epeorus genus is one of the most under appreciated mayflies and deserves more recognition by fly fishermen and fly tiers. If it wasn't for the Quill Gordon I doubt most fly fishermen would know squat about the Epeorus genus.
John
I think this dressing is fantastic. I don't run across this fly very often up here; almost never, in fact, but I would tie this fly on the end of my tippet and fish it on general principle alone. So well done. Thanks for posting it.ForumGhillie wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 7:07 am There was a discussion about Quill Gordon (Epeorus pleuralis) on another forum, which is an early season Eastern US mayfly hatch. That got me tying another Epeorus mayfly - Epeorus vitreus, which I have witnessed and fished in the Upper Midwest. Epeorus mayflies are the perfect example of a winged wet fly since they are known to hatch along the stream bottom in riffled sections of the rivers and then work their way as a winged mayfly to the surface.
There are a lot of common names for Epeorus vitreus and I find that confusing. They are not sulphurs, nor cahills, yet they are often times lumped in with them. I find the Epeorus vitreus wet fly a great 'killer' pattern in the riffles when the insects are hatching. I do believe the wing is an important trigger for this fly when the trout are feeding on the bottom emerging duns.
I tie the body with a blend of awesome possum dubbing over white thread to keep it lighter in color. When it is wet the body darkens. I generally switch the thread color to medium olive for the thorax, but for Letumgo's sake I continued with the white thread and colored the head with Prismacolor Mocha Dark, then coated with head cement.
Epeorus-vitreus-wet-fly.jpg