I’ve introduced you to ‘The Neighbor’ before. This is the guy that ‘Dances with Bears’ – I’m referring to a post from a year or so ago. So, he shows up at our place with a container in hand. Hey, he’s given me flies in the past so I’m as cordial and nice as I can be because I suspect he’s trying to flush out all his rejects from his collection. Believe me, you want his rejects if he offers them to you! But, I am incorrect with regard to the container.
Instead, there’s a prisoner in it. The captive is questioned and interrogated promptly. These pictures were intentionally over exposed to try to make the color of this fly more apparent. It had a dark dun wing, and as ‘The Neighbor’ said: “It’s a size 12!” – I agreed. The body would seem to look similar to an ISO but the fore-legs do NOT have the distinctive color change – the white from the ‘white-gloved-Howdy’ moniker. And this is WAY too early for them to be hatching… isn’t it?!? The body was distinctly a variation on brown and dark tans. My observations did not really detect much if any olive.
It must be mentioned that this fly came to me with tails missing and ‘The Neighbor’ said that was how he had found it. The previous pictures show the fly in as healthy a state as it ever was according to ‘The Neighbor’. I definitely mishandled/abused the fly to the point that I was able to lay it inline with the scale.
You can clearly see, as in most cases I’ve observed, that the belly (ventral?) side of the fly is clearly lighter in color than the dorsal (top) of the body.
Yet this shot seems to show its ventral side not so light a color – do NOT be fooled – it was lighter!
The last picture to the right, above seems to show a shade of olive or green but this picture was taken outside and the background was grass. The color of this picture may have been affected by this – maybe.
Well, if you know what this ‘Mystery Fly’ is, please shoot us an email at slaterunsportsmen@gmail.com and let us know what it is!
The crick is at 3.78 feet and falling as I write this. It looks much clearer than yesterday and is in the process of clearing as it’s not looking like coffee with cream anymore.
Reporting from Slate Run….. and till we see each other again… UB
Slate Run Sportsmen 
GM 65 , rain, fog here in Gap Looks like you had 1/2″ rain in last 2 days, but river down to 3′ Have u fished? Bugs?Plan on arriving late afternoon. Neighbor
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
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Don’t know if want to re-think about coming up – it’s supposed to rain Fri-Sat(depending on who you ask)-Sun to some degree (I don’t think it’s supposed to be a deluge but…). It’s raining steadily right now! I have not fished and have not seen very many ‘bugs’. I did see a few stone flies passing the cabin yesterday afternoon. Par for the course, I’ve not seen any fish rising so far. UB
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Maybe a quillgordon!
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Hiya Dale and thanks for commenting. How was Kettle? Walt was over yesterday and I think he had a tough go of it. Matter of fact, I think he might have not fished Kettle but a trib. I’m guessing the water is pretty high in the whole area so, kind of blew out the fishing for this weekend – But it’ll settle down and things should start up here and get going really soon.
The more I’ve thought about this fly I am wondering if it might just be like the Neighbor suggested – a Red Quill. Shame about the tails being missing or that would have given us a big clue. I’m sure you know that Quill Gordons and Hendricksons look very similar – their tails being one sure fired way to tell them apart. Hendricksons(the female and the Red Quill being the male) have 3 tails – the QG – 2. That coloring makes me wonder that it may be a Red Quill. take care… UB
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Looking at the top right & the lower left pics, at the slanted wings & leg markings, I would say March Brown, but could be wrong…
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I’m not sure if I can even attach a picture in reply to a comment here in WordPress… but no, that definitely is NOT a March Brown. At least not any March Brown I’ve seen in this area. Hey, How was Kettle? UB
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