Jigged Western Green Drake Nymph

Green Drakes are one of the most famed mayflies in the world. Here in the US, the insects can be broken into two broad categories: Eastern and Western Green Drakes. Although both are large green mayflies, they belong to entirely different families. Eastern Green Drakes belong to the Ephemeridae family which contains very large burrowing mayflies like the famous Hexagenia. The Western Green Drake is a part of the Ephemerellidae family which contains PMDs, Sulphurs, Hendricksons, and some BWO’s not in the Baetis family. These families have entirely different looking nymphal forms and this particular fly aims to capture the western variant of the famed Green Drake.

This hatch persists through late spring into the summer. It climbs in altitude clinging to cooler weather. Currently, our upper Mckenzie, Upper Middle Fork Wilamette, & other Wilamette tributaries at higher elevation are seeing great emergences of Western Green Drakes in the afternoon. These hatches are even more prolific on overcast or particularly rainy days. This fly makes a fantastic searching nymph pattern this time of year locally and over the hill on the Upper Deschutes and Metolious. If you can’t take this to the Metolious and catch the tail end of the early Green Drake hatch, there is a second wave that comes in September where this fly will get some love. This fly was tied with a large tungsten bead and extra lead to excel on the Upper Mckenzie and Metolious.

-Simon