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Brown Drake (Ephemera simulans)
Mayfly, hatching June, active in water between 55 and 65°F, and imitated at #10–12. Recorded from 5 of the 8 regions this map covers, across Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
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A large burrowing mayfly, tan-brown with mottled wings and three tails, close enough in size to the Hex to be confused with it and running about two weeks ahead of it on the same water. June is the peak, in water between 55 and 65 degrees, which covers cold, cold-transitional and cool streams. The nymph burrows in silt and soft sand along the margins; gilled and pale, it wriggles free at dusk and swims for the surface, which is why a wiggling nymph on a swing takes fish before a single dun shows. That swim is the vulnerable moment and it happens in low light, so a soft-hackle or an unweighted nymph in the film covers it. The dun is big, tan and clumsy at last light, and trout that ignored everything all day feed openly for the twenty minutes it lasts. The spinner falls after dark, rusty brown and wings spent, often heavier than the emergence itself.
- #10–12Hook size
- 55–65°FWater, active
- JunPeak months
- 4Life stages fished
What it is
Mayfly · Ephemera simulans · nymph → emerger → dun → spinner
A large burrowing mayfly, tan-brown with mottled wings, close in size to the Hex and running about two weeks ahead of it on the same rivers. Three tails and a heavily marked abdomen.
The warm-up act for the Hex, and on some Michigan water the better hatch of the two. Dusk into dark.
When it hatches
The months below are this site's shared calendar, which covers 5 regions at once. In southeast Minnesota the state's own source says June, and the Minnesota page is built on that instead.
Peak is June. 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 55°F to 65°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool water — the band crosses 2 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 |
|---|---|
| nymph | Burrows in silt and soft sand along the margins. Gilled and pale, it wriggles free at dusk and swims to the surface — the reason a wiggling nymph fished on a swing takes fish before the dun ever appears. |
| emerger | The swim to the surface is the vulnerable moment and it happens in low light. A soft-hackle or an unweighted nymph in the film covers it. |
| dun | Big, tan, and clumsy on the water at last light. Trout that have ignored everything all day feed openly for the twenty minutes it lasts. |
| spinner | Falls after dark, often heavier than the dun emergence. Spent wings flat, body rusty brown. |
Matching flies
4 patterns in this book imitate the Brown Drake, 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.
- Brown Drake dry fly · #10–12 — Dusk in early June on Michigan and Wisconsin sand-bottom rivers.
- Brown Drake Spinner dry fly · #10–12 — Spent wings, dead drift, in the dark.
- Hex Nymph nymph · #6–10 — Big burrower nymph. Worth dredging silt banks months either side of the hatch.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.
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.
- Baldwin River northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Beaver Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Bray Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Coe Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Diamond Lake Outlet Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- East Branch Hersey Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- East Branch Pine River northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Hersey Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Hoxey Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°F
- Johnson Creek northern lower Michigan · July mean 61.3°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
- the Upper Peninsula MI
- northern Wisconsin WI
- the Wisconsin driftless WI
- southeast Minnesota MN
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Au Sable River
- Muskegon River
- Escanaba River
- Saint Croix River
- Abitosse Creek
- Acme Creek
- Adams Creek
- Adams Creek
- Addis Creek
- Adventure Creek
- Aho Creek
- Ahola Creek
- Alabaster Whitney Drain
- Albrechts Creek
- Alder Creek
- Alder Creek
- Aldridge Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allenton Creek
- Allequash Creek
- and 2948 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca · Mayfly · May–July
- Sulphur Ephemerella invaria · Mayfly · May–July
- Hex Hexagenia limbata · Mayfly · June–July
- Isonychia / Slate Drake Isonychia bicolor · Mayfly · June–September
- Little Yellow May Leucrocuta / Heptagenia spp. · Mayfly · June–September