Blue Wing Olive
Blue Wing Olive: BWOs are an extremely prevelant Mayfly and hatch at various times throughout the year, making them a very important food source for Trout. This dry fly is the exact match.
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Blue Wing Olive flies, also known as BWO’s, are a common term for adult mayflies with olive to olive-brown bodies with bluish wings. Blue Wing Olive flies are tied in a variety of stages, nymphal, emerger and adult, to imitate exactly what the trout are keying in on at that time. Targeting the nymphal stage with a blue winged olive fly pattern is great to use early season: late February to late April. During this time, it’s a good idea to carry some blue wing olive emergers and adult dry flies in your fly box. If the trout aren’t eating your dries, try the blue wing olive nymph version. Adults – like all mayflies – travel in a slow, methodical, north-to-south direction. This is your cue to tie on a blue wing olive dry fly. They also hatch in a variety of sizes - I’d carry between 14 and 20 size blue wing olive flies. Make sure you’re paying attention to the size and flight trajectory of the emerging insect in front of you.
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Tying a Blue Winged Olive Fly Pattern
To tie an adult blue winged olive mayfly, I'd start with a standard down eye dry fly hook between size 14 and 20. The two most common BWO dry fly tied today are the traditional catskills, and the parachute adams. The tail material should be the same as the hackle material you’re using for the wings. The body can be tied with a variety of different materials. You can use fine, dry fly dubbing from Hareline or Pirit’s Antron dubbing is also a good option for Blue Winged Olive fly bodies. For some variety, you could use stripped quills dyed that Blue Wing Olive shade as well.
Fly Fishing Blue Wing Olive Flies
So, you’re on the water, you’ve identified there are hatchings all around you, you have a blue winged olive fly and the fish are rising - now what? First things first - identify your casting ability. If you aren’t comfortable bombing a 20-30ft cast to reach the rising fish from your standing position, move your feet. Secondly, always make your first cast count - each cast after your initial diminishes the likelihood of hookups. I personally like to cast downstream with my blue winged olive fly pattern to rising fish; the less line they can see the less likely they are to spook. Finally calm your nerves - you’ll miss more hookups setting the hook early than you will late - barbless hooks are essential if you’re catch and release dry fly fishing with blue wing olive flies. There’s a higher likelihood of fish swallowing the blue winged olive fly when dry fly fishing.
It is also very common to find blue wing olive comparadun and bwo sparkle dun dry fly in a well-versed anglers fly box, as well as blue winged olive soft hackle and parachute bwo dry fly patterns.
Look at our full selection of Blue Wing Olive flies to see the wide range of colors and style variations we carry.
-FLIDRYDRY011Trout Season from Sage Fly Fish on Vimeo.