Large Blue-Winged Olives
Like most common names, "Large Blue-Winged Olive" can refer to more than one taxon. They're previewed below, along with 3 specimens. For more detail click through to the scientific names.
These are pretty much always called Large Blue-Winged Olives.
Though not as well known as the Hendrickson and Sulphur hatches of the
Ephemerella genus,
Drunella cornuta (Olive Morning Dun or Large Blue-Winged Olive) is nonetheless an important Eastern hatch.
Lloyd Gonzales, in his book
Fly-Fishing Pressured Water, notes that this attractive olive-green mayfly can provide good-to-excellent morning fishing in the faster sections of many streams. He also mentions that it can hatch in surprising numbers and usually faces less competition for the trout's attention than many of the spring or evening-emerging ephemerellids. Yet,
cornuta and its sister species have largely escaped the limelight. The renowned twilight hatches of big
Ephemera drakes and many other popular mayfly species command fly fisher's attention at this time of year. As the days lengthen, fishing all of the available mayfly hatches would require a pretty long day astream, so most anglers choose to focus on the late afternoon and evening activity.
Nature seems to have several recurrent color themes, and one of these is gray-winged/olive-bodied aquatic insects. Perhaps this explains why the name "Blue-Winged Olive" is often held up as the poster child for common name confusion. It has been freely applied to a multitude of mayflies in various families, genera, and species. Prior to having a well-established common name, this mayfly was referred to by Gonzales as the Olive Morning Dun. However, it has already been added to the long list of "BWOs" on many Eastern/Midwestern hatch charts.
These are often called Large Blue-Winged Olives.
Ernest Schwiebert had this to say about the hatches of this chunky Eastern
Drunella (Blue-Winged Olive) species:
An imitation is rarely required, but notes show that when it is needed it is needed badly.
See the
Drunella and
Drunella cornuta hatch pages for additional information.