Blue Winged Olive Emerger

Typically, the blue winged olive hatch occurs in open water. The blue winged olive emergers swim to the surface in the open water. These emerging mayflies are exposed to the trout during this time, and the longer they take to make it to the surface, the better the more vulnerable they are. In calmer water, the emergers often take longer to make the journey to the top. Once the insects reach the surface, they will fly away as a dun as quickly as they can to the streamside plants, waiting just long enough for their wings to dry.

What this means to the angler is that emerger imitations are a significant addition to his arsenal. They are of special importance on smooth, flowing waters where the blue winged olive emergence is most likely to take place. However, when the emerger patterns are not working well, you may want to switch to a blue winged olive nymph pattern for better results. Which pattern works best will depend on the relative number of emergers versus nymphs in the water.

One thing that anglers should be aware of is that some species crawl up into streamside vegetation to hatch. If this is the case, you will want to fish the bottom with a nymph pattern or wait for the spinners to fall, as there will be no emergers or duns in the water to imitate. You can assume this is the case if you do not notice any duns or splashes on the surface, or fish showing their heads and tails while rolling.