The March Brown

Entomologists classify it differently depending on where they are located. For the excessively curious, if you are in England you are talking about the Rithrogena Germanica, if you are on the Battenkill River in Vermont you are talking about the Stenonema Vicarium and if you are on the Yakima River in Washington you are talking about the Rhithrogena morrisoni. Whatever the entomologists call it, fly fisherman call it the March Brown. Hatching as early as February or as late as June, depending on the location and the severity of the particular winter, it is a big brown mayfly hatch that awakens the senses of trout, and rekindles the trout fly fisher with their passion. No other mayfly can be quite so anticipated as the March Brown. The first major hatch of the spring season, it signals the end of winter to a fly angler, as much as the coming of a local Hickory Farms signals Christmas. The March Brown is one of the oldest patterns out there, around since the beginning of fly fishing. So it has been that generations of fly angler