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Water Boatman (Corixidae)
Other, hatching September–November, active in water between 45 and 65°F, and imitated at #14–18. Recorded from the Wisconsin driftless and northern Wisconsin, where 1611 Wisconsin rivers on this site carry a page.
- #14–18Hook size
- 45–65°FWater, active
- Sep–NovPeak months
- 1Life stage fished
What it is
Other · Corixidae · adult
A small, oval, hard-backed bug with long fringed rear legs held out like oars, and a silvery bubble of trapped air carried under the body when it dives.
An air-breathing beetle-like bug that swims down to the bottom carrying a silver bubble and rows back up for air. Autumn flights land them on the water in numbers, and the take is on the rise back to the surface, so a rising retrieve beats a dead drift.
When it hatches
Peak is September–November. 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 45°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 |
|---|---|
| adult | Swims down to feed and must return to the surface for air, so the natural is constantly rising. Autumn flights land them on the water in numbers. Fish it with a lifting retrieve — the take is almost always on the way up. |
Matching flies
4 patterns in this book imitate the Water Boatman, 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.
- Prince Nymph nymph · #10–18 — An attractor nymph with biot wings. Nobody agrees what it imitates and it does not matter.
- Partridge & Orange Soft Hackle wet fly · #12–18 — Swung down and across. The simplest fly here and among the most effective.
- Water Boatman nymph · #14–18 — Peacock or olive body with a flash bubble under the shellback and biot oars. Fished with a rising retrieve; the natural is going up for air.
- Zug Bug nymph · #12–16 — Peacock and a dark body. Older than most of us and still catching fish.
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
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.
- Cranefly Tipula spp. · Other · April–June and September–October
- Fish Eggs Other · Other · October–January and April
- Aquatic Worm Oligochaeta · Other · all year
- Damselfly Zygoptera · Other · all year
- Dragonfly Anisoptera · Other · all year