I'll Have the Usual

I like it when things come together as expected. The weekend weather was as perfect as it can get, the bugs were hatching, and there were even a few fish rising. The usual winter stones were out and about – but it was the midge hatch that was drawing fish to the surface consistently.

An idyllic early season scene on a spring creek.

One of the pods of rising browns - this one had at least a dozen fish that were rising quite regularly.

A freshly emerged (teneral) female winter stonefly (Utacapnia trava) waiting for its wings to unfurl and harden.
Once everything has hardened (sclerotized) the adult will be all black.

I have to admit that I didn't bring my midge box with me on this trip and the few mayfly emergers and dries that I tried to modify were laughed at by the pods of feeding browns. None-the-less, I did manage to hook a few (non-rising) fish on small black winter stonefly nymphs.