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Aquatic Worm (Oligochaeta)
Other, in the drift all year, active in water between 35 and 70°F, and imitated at #10–16. Recorded from the Virginia mountains, where 796 Virginia rivers on this site carry a page.
- #10–16Hook size
- 35–70°FWater, active
- all yearAvailable
- 1Life stage fished
What it is
Other · Oligochaeta · larva
A soft, unsegmented-looking red, pink or cream worm, an inch or two long, living in silt and gravel. Exactly what it appears to be.
Segmented worms in the silt, dislodged in quantity every time the river comes up. Not a hatch and not glamorous, but the single most reliable thing to fish in high dirty water in any of these states.
When it hatches
In the water twelve months a year, which is why the panel in the app ranks it below anything with a season.
peak shoulder not recommended
Water conditions
The band is a water temperature, not an air temperature, and it is the range in which this insect is worth fishing — for a mayfly that is the emergence window; for a scud or a midge it is simply the range trout will still eat one in.
Active from 35°F to 70°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool, warm water — the band crosses 3 of the three breaks the river colours use. Breaks at 58, 64 and 70°F.
Stages
What the insect is doing, and what that means for what you tie on.
| Stage | What it is |
|---|---|
| larva | Lives in the sediment and is dislodged in quantity whenever the river rises. Not a hatch and never a rise, but the most reliable single fly in high, dirty water anywhere in these states. |
Matching flies
4 patterns in this book imitate the Aquatic Worm, across its stages. Which one to tie on follows the stage the water temperature says it is in — the app makes that call on a live reading; this page lists the whole set.
- Mop Fly nymph · #10–14 — Divisive and effective. Suggests a cranefly larva more than anybody wants to admit.
- San Juan Worm nymph · #8–14 — Aquatic worms wash out in every rise of water. Unfashionable and undefeated.
- Squirmy Wormy nymph · #8–14 — The San Juan with movement. For coloured, pushy water.
- Walt's Worm nymph · #12–18 — Dubbing on a hook. Suggests cranefly larvae, sowbugs and everything else pale and wriggling.
Where to find it right now
The rivers with a page here that sit in this insect's regions, with a USGS gauge reporting water temperature. This list is re-ranked against the reading each gauge is sending now and today's date, so it is live — the fallback below it, if the readings do not arrive, is each river's measured July mean.
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Back Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Big Cherry Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Big Ivy Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Boothe Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Brogan Branch the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Browns Dan River the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Brushy Fork the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Camp Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Conners Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
Regional presence
Regions, not collection records. This insect is recorded from the coarse regions below; nobody has surveyed which named river it has been caught on, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- northern lower Michigan MI
- southern lower Michigan MI
- the Upper Peninsula MI
- the Wisconsin driftless WI
- northern Wisconsin WI
- the Virginia mountains VA
- the North Carolina mountains NC
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Jackson River
- Smith River
- Als Run
- Alum Creek
- Amos Branch
- Anderson Run
- Ararat River
- Auberry Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Fork
- Back Run
- Baker Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Barbours Creek
- Bark Camp Branch
- Bark Camp Branch
- Barkcamp Branch
- Barnard Creek
- Barney Run
- Barterbrook Branch
- Batie Creek
- Battery Creek
- and 772 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Cranefly Tipula spp. · Other · April–June and September–October
- Water Boatman Corixidae · Other · September–November
- Fish Eggs Other · Other · October–January and April
- Alderfly Sialis spp. · Other · May–June
- Damselfly Zygoptera · Other · all year