Big Mayfly Hatch

[TillamookChinook]

Found this big mayfly in my office today in inner northeast Portland. It's body is 1" and the tail is 3/4" long. One questions is, what species is it? (All my trouty books are at home, so I can't look it up right now.)

The more important question is, where did it come from? My office is a half block off the light rail and I-84 freeway on 25th. I think of mayflies being associated with bodies of water nearby, and the nearest body of water I can think of is the pond in Laurelhurst Park, over a mile away.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Mayfly-081208-002.JPG

TC

[Blue Tip Spinner]

Found this big mayfly in my office today in inner northeast Portland. It's body is 1" and the tail is 3/4" long. One questions is, what species is it? (All my trouty books are at home, so I can't look it up right now.)

The more important question is, where did it come from? My office is a half block off the light rail and I-84 freeway on 25th. I think of mayflies being associated with bodies of water nearby, and the nearest body of water I can think of is the pond in Laurelhurst Park, over a mile away.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/Mayfly-081208-002.JPG

TC

is it windy over there? i have found BWO's and other mays a couple/few miles away from bodies of water in the past.

is that a green drake?

[fishnfun]

looks like it could be a hex, I know they hatch in the willamette so one could have been blown from there.

[steelie817]

Looks like a Hex!

[TillamookChinook]

Thanks, guys. I'll look up the hexagenia in my Haefle/Hughes Western Hatches book when I get home tonight. I went to a presentation they gave back before they published their book, over 30 years ago I'm sure, and when I was just a beginning fly angler. I walked out of there knowing that I would catch a lot of fish from then on, being smart about the bugs. Unfortunately, my brain doesn't retain much beyond being able to distinguish a mayfly from a caddis from a stonefly. So there are still mysteries for me with flyfishing. Like, why such a big mayfly would be in my office. Maybe it was looking for architectural plans for a streamside cottage, looking to trade up from a mud burrow, or a gravel case, or just hiding in the dark under a rock.

TC

[TillamookChinook]

Update:
The mayfly was apparently in the process of emerging when I captured it. The wings were up and I gently grabbed them and put the fly in a jar. It seemed lethargic. About an hour later I looked in and it looked like there were two flies in there. One was the nymphal shuck and the other was the now-lively mayfly. The body was now over 1" long and the two tails were about 1-1/2" long. The color was brighter lighter green. And it flew away before I could get a picture. May it find a mate in its one glorious day as an adult fly.

The new question is how the nymph crawled into my office and up onto the bookshelf before hatching.

TC

[greenbuttskunk]

jim,
does your wife know you have nymphs in your office?:D

[nookslayer]

So what I am hearing is there is a HEX hatch in Laurelhurst Park? Let's go!:D

[motoxaaron03]

The real question here is: how do you have time at work to take the hex's picture and post a thread? Hmmmm... JK. That's pretty neat though, I'm not sure that I've seen one that big before.

[garyk]

The new question is how the nymph crawled into my office and up onto the bookshelf before hatching.


It didn't.

It flew to your office as a newly emerged dun.

In the jar it molted for the last time, and into its final life stage - the spinner.

BTW, the Sauvie Island Hex hatch is coming off strong...lots of duns in the fields.

[joemomma]

Did emerge out of your coffee cup?

[TillamookChinook]

The inside of my coffee mug does look a bit like a science experiment, but I think I probably would have seen a bug that big if it was in there. And, with a bug that big, I could have strained the coffee through my teeth and not wasted it.

TC