Tricos

[LouM]

I was fishing the Saucon yesterday and saw and caught some tricos.

 

[dc410]

That doesn't surprise me. I've caught fish on Tricos in years past as early as the second week of May.

 

[pcray1231]

Sure they aren't blue quills? Been fooled before on that one, they look a lot like tricos.

 

[CLSports]

Aww man! I haven't even started fishing the sulphurs yet. Now Trikes are starting? Slow down hatches! At this rate, next years hatches will be starting this year. What is this world coming to? I am so confused . . .

 

[PennKev]

Probably blue quills. They are small, and when in the air in numbers their flight characteristics are similiar to tricos.

 

[dc410]

pcray1231 wrote:
Sure they aren't blue quills? Been fooled before on that one, they look a lot like tricos.

Pcray,

I agree that blue quills and Tricos could be confused for each other for the simple fact that they are both small, dark colored mayflies. However, upon closer examination there are very distinct differences between these two species. The size of the thorax in comparison to the length of the abdomen as well as the shape and size of the wings also in comparison with the abdomen are distinctly different between blue quills and Tricos. I'm absolutely sure that I caught trout on a Trico spinnerfall on a SE PA stream on May 14 a few seasons ago. This stream was not the Saucon. I know very little about the actual hatches on the Saucon Creek.

 

[outsider]

I fished the Saucon creek in years gone past, don't know that I ever experienced a blue quill hatch there. And with the trico's , one is usually seeing the true adult spinner mating swarm. Add that hatch timing has been screwed up due to early warm weather.

 

[acesedgley]

What is the scientific name of the blue quill?
I think there are both on the Tully?

 

[redietz]

acesedgley wrote:
What is the scientific name of the blue quill?
I think there are both on the Tully?

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva

They're not nearly as small as tricos.

 

[pcray1231]

I'm absolutely sure that I caught trout on a Trico spinnerfall on a SE PA stream on May 14 a few seasons ago.

Fair enough. I believe ya. Blue Quills, just in behavior, resemble tricos, and many, many make this mistake around the June time frame. So it'd be "less weird". But "more weird" things can happen.

In many years I've seen reports that tricos have started in early June in places like Spring Creek, or that Penns had a huge trico hatch (when it doesn't really have many tricos at all). I'd go and check it out and find only blue quills.

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva

They're not nearly as small as tricos.

That's one of them. Lots of paralep species, though, all pretty similar. P.Mollis is a common one as well (AKA Jenny spinner). And we have our share of P. Guttata.

True, they're bigger than trico's. But they're still small mayflies with spinners that swarm over riffles in the mornings and dance for some time then fall. Many anglers just see balls of small dark colored dancing mayflies in the morning in June and assume the trico's have started.

The blue quills prime time is June, most years, before the trico's get going a month or so later. When seeing a mating swarm and not examining an individual, what I've seen is that the up and down dance of paraleps is MUCH more exaggerated than it is with tricos. Both do it. But paraleps are on a severe roller coaster!

 

[acesedgley]

Are the tails of the males same length as trikes? (super long?)

 

[buffalo]

Got skunked on the Saucon this morning but did see some of Lou's Tricos

 

[duckfoot]

global warming

 

[franklin]

I'm confident Lou knows a trico when he sees one. So Lou, aside from the tricos how was the fishing?

 

[LouM]

Franklin, got 2 a small wild brown and a bow. The baiters have really been pounding it.

 

[Chaz]

Little Blue Quills are a major hatch on many freestone streams and quite a few limestone streams. The larger variety are quite common and are the most likely to be hatching in early May. Tricos are fat short mayflies whose wings, of which there are 2 are at least twice the length of the body. LBQ's have a very short hind wing in addition to the flight wings. The wings are the same length as the skinny body.

 

[streamerguy]

On Friday I fished a freestone stream in NW PA and noticed some bugs in the streamside spider webs that I'm pretty sure were tricos. I'm not familiar with them, but they looked exactly like the photos I've seen of tricos. I'll try to take some pictures next time

Saw various small insects flying about but couldn't get a positive ID. Some fish were sipping on stuff in a couple of the slow pools and I had success fishing BWO imitations and griffith's gnats, though now I'm starting to wonder if they were feeding on trico spinners floating down. The fish aren't really selective here but it would be interesting if that's what they were eating....

 

[JackM]

"Trico" is like "BWO" in a way. Despite Chaz' protestations to the contrary, in PA, they may be 28-22.

 

[pcray1231]

Not really. BWO is an accepted common name for at least a dozen species covering several genus and even different families!

Trico, on the other hand is a shortened version of the correct Latin name for a single genus containing only one important species.

As far as common names, there probably is no better example of a name that has no gray area. It can properly describe only 1 specific bug, and using it to describe a different bug is, in every sense of the word, wrong.

I too am skeptical of a few of these id's, but without pictures there's no way to confirm or dispute.

 

[afishinado]

Confusion about which small mayfly (size 24+/-) is hatching often happens this time of year. The Tricos have a really fat football shaped body with oversized wings and long tails. See pics below.

The other hatch you may see are called by some little blue quills. Another name is a Paralep (short for Parleptoplebia). See pics of both below.

One thing you may notice about Paraleps, they tend to hover over the stream and fly with a vertical / up and down motion.