Gray Drake

NYMPH SIZE: 12-20 mm (1/2 to 3/4 in)

NYMPH COLOR: Grays

SPINNER SIZE: 12-20 mm (1/2 to 3/4 in)

SPINNER COLOR: Wing: clear. Body: dark gray, burgundy, yellow-olive; bottom lighter than top

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS: Nymph: three fringed tails; large gills; antennae less than twice as long as the width of the head. Duns and spinners: two tails.

About Gray Drakes

Gray drakes are swimmer-type mayflies. They inhabit weedy sections of slow moving streams and some lakes. In rivers, the mature nymphs move near shore, then crawl out of the water to emerge. Hatches are in the summer through September.

Nymph imitations should be fished like a small streamer, retrieving the fly near the bottom in short strips of a few inches (pause between each strip).

Because the duns don't emerge in the water, they are seldom available to trout during a hatch. Spinners patterns are very useful, however, and the large size of the natural insect piques the interest of trout. Egg-laying occurs over slow, flat water, and that is where your spinner imitation should be cast; it can happen at almost any time of day. Unfortunately the spinner falls can be so massive that it's difficult to get a trout's attention or for you to distinguish your fly from the hundreds of naturals.

STAGE

PATTERN

SIZE/
COLOR

PRESENTATION

WHERE

Nymph

Hares Ear, Pheasant Tail, A. P. Nymph

12-16/Brown, gray-brown

Count-down-and-retrieve

Slow runs, pools, lakes

Spinner

Hen Spinner

12-16/Gray-brown

Standard dry fly, Chuck-and-sit

Slow runs, pools, lakes