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Cranefly (Tipula spp.)
Other, hatching April–June and September–October, active in water between 40 and 65°F, and imitated at #6–10. Recorded from the Wisconsin driftless and northern Wisconsin, where 1611 Wisconsin rivers on this site carry a page.
The larva is the one that matters: a fat, legless, olive-grey grub an inch or more long, living in bank margins and silt, washed out in numbers when the water comes up. Hooks run 6 to 10, the active band is 40 to 65 degrees across cold, cold-transitional and cool water, and the peak falls in April, May and June and again in September and October. A big, soft, olive grub bounced along the bottom is a serious early-season fly, and a swing after rain is when it earns the space in the box. The adult looks like an oversized mosquito, long-legged and awkward, a poor swimmer and a worse flier; blown onto the water on summer evenings it is occasionally worth a skated dry on small water. A Cranefly Larva in 6 to 10 or Pat's Rubber Legs in 4 to 10 carries the weight, with a Mop Fly or Walt's Worm behind them.
- #6–10Hook size
- 40–65°FWater, active
- Apr–Jun · Sep–OctPeak months
- 3Life stages fished
What it is
Other · Tipula spp. · larva → pupa → adult
The larva is a fat, legless, olive-grey grub, an inch or more long, living in bank margins and silt. The adult looks like an oversized mosquito and is a poor swimmer and a worse flier.
A big pale grub that washes out of undercut banks in high water. Worth a swing after rain.
When it hatches
Peak is April–June and September–October. 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 40°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 |
|---|---|
| larva | The one that matters. High water washes them out of the banks in numbers, and a big, soft, olive grub bounced along the bottom is a serious early-season fly. |
| pupa | Present in the drift and taken by trout; this file carries no separate description of the stage. |
| adult | Long-legged and awkward, blown onto the water on summer evenings. Occasionally worth a skated dry on small water. |
Matching flies
6 patterns in this book imitate the Cranefly, 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.
- Adult Cranefly dry fly · #10–16 — Long trailing legs, sparse hackle, skittered rather than drifted. Autumn and spring evenings on the bank side.
- Cranefly Larva nymph · #6–10 — A fat pale grub. Best in the day or two after high water.
- Mop Fly nymph · #10–14 — Divisive and effective. Suggests a cranefly larva more than anybody wants to admit.
- Pat's Rubber Legs nymph · #4–10 — Ugly, heavy, and the single best searching nymph in high or coloured water.
- Walt's Worm nymph · #12–18 — Dubbing on a hook. Suggests cranefly larvae, sowbugs and everything else pale and wriggling.
- Woolly Bugger (Olive) streamer · #2–12 — The clear-water version. Smaller and lighter than you think you need.
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.
- Black Earth Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 61.6°F
- Baraboo River the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Billings Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Brandy Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Brewer Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Cazenovia Branch the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Council Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Deer Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Fountain Creek the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°F
- Grinsell Branch the Wisconsin driftless · July mean 62.2°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
- southeast Minnesota MN
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Saint Croix River
- Adams Creek
- Alder Creek
- Alder Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allen Creek
- Allenton Creek
- Allequash Creek
- Alvin Creek
- Amo Creek
- Anderson Creek
- Annis Creek
- Apple Branch
- Apple Creek
- Apple River
- Arkansaw Creek
- Armstrong Creek
- Armstrong Creek
- Arnold Creek
- Ash Creek
- Auburn Lake Creek
- Augustine Creek
- and 1587 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Water Boatman Corixidae · Other · September–November
- Alderfly Sialis spp. · Other · May–June
- Fish Eggs Other · Other · October–January and April
- Aquatic Worm Oligochaeta · Other · all year
- Damselfly Zygoptera · Other · all year