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Blue Quill (Paraleptophlebia adoptiva)
Mayfly, hatching April–May, active in water between 44 and 56°F, and imitated at #16–18. Recorded from the Virginia mountains, where 796 Virginia rivers on this site carry a page.
A small, dark mayfly of cold April and May water — slate-grey wings, a nearly black-brown body, two tails rather than three — coming off alongside the Hendrickson and routinely mistaken for a small one at distance. It works in water from 44 to 56 degrees, which is cold water and nothing else, and the imitations run size 16 to 18. The nymph is a slender, agile swimmer that keeps to slower water and leaf packs instead of fast gravel. Emergence happens in the surface film in the middle of the day, and in cold water it goes slowly enough that trout take the stuck dun in preference to the free one. The dun rides low; on a bright afternoon the rise forms are gentle and the fly is easy to lose at fifteen yards. Spinners fall in the evening, clear-winged and dark-bodied, less concentrated than the Hendrickson's and often overlooked entirely.
- #16–18Hook size
- 44–56°FWater, active
- Apr–MayPeak months
- 4Life stages fished
What it is
Mayfly · Paraleptophlebia adoptiva · nymph → emerger → dun → spinner
A small, dark mayfly — slate-grey wings and a nearly black-brown body — coming off the same cold April water as the Hendrickson and often mistaken for a small one at a distance. Two tails, not three.
Runs with the Hendrickson and two sizes smaller. When fish refuse the bigger dun, this is usually why.
When it hatches
Peak is April–May. The pale months either side are the shoulder — the app widens a peak by one month in each direction and recommends the bug there, and no further: that widening is bounded so that a bug peaking in May is never offered in August.
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 44°F to 56°F. On this map that is cold water. 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 |
|---|---|
| nymph | A slender, agile swimmer that lives in slower water and leaf packs rather than fast gravel. Small dark nymphs, size 16 to 18, are the imitation. |
| emerger | Emerges in the surface film in the middle of the day, and in cold water it emerges slowly enough that trout take the stuck dun in preference to the free one. |
| dun | Small and dark, riding low. On a bright April afternoon the rise forms are gentle and the fly is easy to lose track of at fifteen yards. |
| spinner | Evening fall, clear wings, dark body. Less concentrated than the Hendrickson's and often overlooked. |
Matching flies
4 patterns in this book imitate the Blue Quill, 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.
- Blue Quill dry fly · #16–18 — Small dark mayfly dun. Spring Blue Quills and fall Mahoganies are the same fly.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.
- Pheasant Tail Nymph nymph · #12–22 — The mayfly nymph. Beadhead or not, size 16, and half the trout in the world have eaten one.
- RS2 emerger · #16–24 — The emerger that saves a hatch you cannot otherwise crack. Fish it in the film.
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.
- 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
- Dan River 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 Wisconsin driftless WI
- the Virginia mountains VA
- the North Carolina mountains NC
- southeast Minnesota MN
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.
- Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. · Mayfly · March–May and September–November
- Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria · Mayfly · April–May
- Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca · Mayfly · May–July
- Little Sulphur Ephemerella dorothea · Mayfly · May–July
- March Brown Maccaffertium vicarium · Mayfly · May–June