Mahogany Dun

Telling it apart

• Reddish mahogany-brown body, size 16–18 — same genus as the Blue Quill (Paraleptophlebia), but a warmer tone.
• Three tails, a slim crawler-type nymph, in slow water and leaf litter.
• Two distinct broods: one in June, a quiet second one from late August to mid-September.
• The second wave usually goes completely unnoticed, lost in the attention paid to late-summer terrestrials.

The Blue Quill's mahogany cousin

The Mahogany Dun shares the genus Paraleptophlebia with the Blue Quill: same slim silhouette, same crawling nymph of slow water and leaf litter, same sensitivity to grey weather. The most reliable difference is colour — a warm mahogany-brown rather than the Blue Quill's grey-blue — and season, since the Mahogany Dun stretches well past when the Blue Quill has finished its single spring generation.

As with its cousin, look for it in moderate-to-slow water rather than fast current.

Two broods, only one anyone notices

The first brood comes off in June, alongside several flashier mayflies, and already goes relatively unnoticed. The second, from late August to mid-September, goes even more so: by then, angler attention has shifted to ants, hoppers and crickets rather than a quiet little mayfly.

It's a real opportunity all the same. A river that seems to offer nothing but terrestrials in September may well have a Mahogany Dun hatch running, simply overlooked.

A quiet small fly, twice a year

The fishing itself doesn't change much between the two broods: a small mahogany dry, presented carefully over slow water, with fine tippet. The real key is knowing the second window exists and keeping an eye out in September instead of assuming mayfly season is over.

A handful of flies in the box is enough — this was never a hatch that demands an arsenal, only attention.