Baetis and Midges for Cold Weather Trout

With baetis hatches beginning to wane in most parts of the northern hemisphere and midges becoming the food of choice as cold weather truly grabs hold, it’s probably worth brushing up on some bug science. Check out TroutNut.com‘s pages on baetidae, or blue-winged olives, and chironomidae, or midges. Or skip past the science and heed Neuswanger’s advice: “The number of genera and species is hopelessly huge for angler entomologists to ever learn, and the identifing characteristics often require slide-mounting tiny parts under high-powered microscopes. Even the most Latin-minded fisherman must slip back to the basics–size and color–to describe his local midge hatches.”