Trico Male Spinner

Spinner:

The male Trico spinners prefer the very early cooler morning of the day. So the spinners that you see early are very often the males.

The males congregate in tight swarms over the riffles above the pools and wait for the females to show up later. As soon as mating takes place, the males fall spent into the water while the females fly to the shore and rest while squeezing the balls of eggs from their abdomen. About a half hour later, they return falling to the water to drop their eggs.

The males immediately fall into the water as soon as copulation occurs. About thirty minutes or slightly longer, the females will return to the water to deposit their eggs. Then they can fall spent on the water or they may make another round.

Spinner Presentation:

At Trout University, we stock both the “Perfect Fly” female spinner and the “Perfect Fly” male spinner. They can be distinguished by the color of the abdomen. The males have a dark brown color or variation there of, while the female will tend to be a variation of dark green. Since the males fall into the water first, you should start with the male spinner and if the activity slows down, switch to the female. It may or may not make any difference, but why not try it?

The spinners will collect in the smooth water at the heads of pools below the riffles. Our choice of presentation will be downstream or down and across. Long light leaders and 6X or 7X tippets are favored.