How to Fish a Blue-Wing Olive Hatch

Spring is a time of rebirth. It’s a season when those first rays of sunlight start shining through winter’s gray clouds calling all the tender new spring grasses and flowers to push their way up through the dirt to add a little color to the landscape. Baby animals are being born, birds are returning from their southern sojourns, and no doubt somewhere, a little ballon man is whistling far and wee. It’s just a special and magical period for everyone, but perhaps no one enjoys the coming of spring more than fly anglers.

After a long and bitterly cold winter of staring at strike indicators, slowly swinging streamers, and bouncing nymphs along bottom, the warmth of springtime sees fly fishermen practically frolicking on their favorite rivers and streams. They dance along the banks, staring determinedly at every pool and eddy, hoping to spot that first rising trout of the season. For spring is a time of revival for dry fly fishing heralded by the emergence of one of the most important insects of the entire fishing season—the blue-wing olive.

A Special Bug

Blue-wing olives or BWOs are the first significant insect hatch of the year on almost every trout stream in the country. These small members of the Baetis genus hatch in great numbers with duns riding on the current for long periods trying to dry their wings and spinners falling in thick carpets on the surface of the water, drawing even the most winter-rusted trout to the surface to feed. Though they are smaller sized bugs—usually running between size 18 and 22—BWO’s are well known for their uncanny ability to attract the attention of some surprisingly big trout, offering anglers their first chance at a topwater monster.

Though they aren’t much bigger than a midge and often hatch in the same type of water, trout will focus on BWO’s over midges like extra hungry folks at a barbecue choosing to eat a kielbasa over a hotdog. During a BWO hatch, the fish will often ignore everything else around them and position themselves in the water column to capitalize on the emerging Baetis, feeding near the bottom as nymphs become active and then moving to the middle and top of the water column as the insect’s swim to the surface and emerge. This means that fishing during the hatch can give you great action throughout the entire day.

The Best Time and The Best Place

Though you may be enamored with the bright and sunny days of spring, the fact is that BWO’s are bad weather bugs. They hatch best on the cloudy, overcast, colder days when there’s a bit of rain or even some light snow in the forecast. Therefore, your best bet to really have a crazy day of spring dry fly fishing during the BWO hatch is by fishing on the first gray spring day after a long period of warm sunny days have had a chance to warm up the water. On these yucky days, you can have some completely lights out fishing so long as you’re putting your flies in the right spots.

Finding the right water is vital to finding BWO’s. They prefer to hatch in long stretches of slower moving water, immediately downstream of faster currents, giving them plenty of time to sit on the surface and dry their wings and of course to be eaten by hungry trout. Target any slow moving pools you can find, paying special attention to outside turns with a lot of still water or back eddies directly off the bank. Many times, large groups of BWO’s will stall out in these spots and stack on top of each other, drawing in trout looking to gobble them down by the mouthful.

Tailouts of long pools just above faster rapids are also great spots to focus your BWO attention. Trout will stack up in these areas and as the water picks up speed, throw themselves with reckless abandon at any insect drifting overhead. These can be great spots for anglers that have trouble making drifts or for those that don’t have exactly the right pattern as trout feeding in these tailouts will be far less picky and more apt to eat first and ask questions later.

Rigging for Bluewings

As BWO’s are such small flies and generally hatch in clear, slow-moving water, you’ve got to use light gear when fishing them. Leaders and tippet should be between 5x and 7x in size and should be between 9 and 12 feet long. When fishing two flies—which is highly recommended—leave at least 18 to 20 inches of tippet between your top fly and your dropper to keep your flies well spread out until you find out exactly what bugs the trout are concentrating on.

Productive BWO fly patterns vary greatly depending on the time of day and what you’re seeing on the water. In the morning when there are few insects on the surface and trout seem to be leaving only small dimples on water rather than distinct rises, the best producers will be small emerger patterns like the Challenged Baetis and the Bat Wing. Pair these with a small unweighted nymph like the Crack Back or the Top Secret as a dropper. Fish this combo on the outer edges of small riffles well away from the bank where morning trout will be more concentrated.

In the late-afternoon and evening when you’re seeing a lot of drifting flies and rising trout, the best way to start catching a lot of fish is to double up on dry flies. Tie a pattern like a Silhouette Dun or a classic BWO to your leader and then add a small crippled pattern like a Mayfly Cripple or Pablos Cripple on as a dropper. Drift these flies close to the bank or splat them down in a completely still area of the pool and you won’t have long to wait for a hungry trout to roll up and inhale them.   

Where to Be Happiest

While you can catch fish no matter the time or the season, there’s something special about getting those first dry fly eats of spring. It’s a kickoff of sorts that helps you shed the doldrums of winter and start looking forward to the fishing year to come. A magical moment in the life of a fly angler, when you see those first trickles of bugs start to flit through the air and those initial trout breaking the surface of the water, you find a pristine happiness. Like holidays and birthdays, it’s a fleeting feeling of joy that only comes once a year so do your best to cherish it and revel in the bliss of springtime and blue wings while they last.