I got a fishing fever, and the only cure is more blue (winged olives)!

An adult BWO (blue winged olive) of the baetis family. (image credit: https://riverrunangling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-19-at-10.37.05-AM-1024x862.png)

Welcome to March! While I haven't seen any BWOs yet, we've seen pretty regular midge hatches as the weather warms. So let's start deep diving!

What do they look like?

Before I start tying, I want to get a good look at what BWOs look like. For that, I'd suggest checking out the TroutNut page on Blue Winged Olives. This is a great starting point for some high resolution pictures of the adults, as well as the earlier life stages. Flipping through some of the local photography, I get the sense that our local BWO duns are more on the yellow side of olive, and the nymphs are more of a dark brown with more lightly colored legs and abdomens.

How do they like to party?

There are countless articles on how to fish a BWO hatch, but for a no-nonsense starter guide, look no further than George Dianiel's 2021 article for Hatch Magazine. In addition, I've heard not to rely on your local stream information peddler to tell you the hatch "is on." Don't rely on hatch charts, either. If there's been some weird weather during the tail end of winter, odds are the BWO hatch will start a bit earlier that year. Also, BWO hatches can be triggered by foul weather, so if there's some rain in the forecast, all the more reason to get out there.

A BWO hatch has trout moving throughout the water column, feeding on nymphs, emergers, and dries. Spring tends to have the larger insects (16-18 in our area) than the fall hatch (20-22). Hatches tend to occur in the early afternoon and last about two to four hours. BWO season tend to stretch into May.

What am I going to tie?

Because hatch can have action throughout the water column, I'll be tying up nymphs, emergers, and dries. For the adult, the answer is easy. I'll be tying the Parachute Adams. I've not spent much time tying parachute-style flies, and being a medium-aged person, I need to be able to see my flies. I'll start with a size 14, but move to 16s once I'm comfortable with the pattern. For materials, I'll use some large saddle hackle fibers for the tail, Semperfli Kapok dubbing in light olive for the body, and Fly Tyer's Dungeon Congo Hair in pink for the parachute, tied with UTC Olive 70D. As a side note: I do want to try a couple flies with a tiny red hotspot right behind the eye of the hook. In some pictures, those eyes can look bright red.

First attempt

Second attempt with red eye hotspot

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll give a little debrief of my time out on the lake this weekend, and we'll also pick patterns for the BWO nymph and emerger ties.