Flav Small Western Green Drake Spinner

Small Western Green Drakes are commonly referred to as “flavs” and this is due to the fact that the most common species is the favilinea. (By the way, the name Small Western Green Drakes and flavs is interchangeable.) These Flavs are very important in the West and inhabit most of the Western streams. These mayflies are very similar to the larger Western Green Drake which is usually a hook size or two larger.

The differences in the larger Western Green Drakes and the smaller version called Flavs are in their behavior, the time of hatches, and the duration of  hatches. In locations where both mayflies exist, the Flavs are more plentiful than their larger cousins. The Small Western Green Drake hatches are dependent on cloud cover and tend to not occur during the bright days. Often anglers will confuse these flavs with the Blue winged Olives which are much smaller.

The Flavs, like other spinners, fall late in the afternoons to just before dark during low light conditions so they can be difficult to see. About the only way to see them is to keep a close check overhead of the same areas of the stream they hatched from. They will fall in the same general areas where they emerged from. They can be seen dancing about while mating, especially if there are good numbers of them.

The spinner fall usually occurs in a brief period of about an hour or less depending on the weather and the sky conditions. Like most other spinner falls, cloudy days are best. Again, like other spinners, the males will fall as soon as the mating is finished. But the females will fly back to the nearby bushes and trees until their eggs are ready to be deposited on the water. Within a very short time they will appear and begin the egg laying process.

The Small Western Green Drake Spinners are almost impossible to see floating spent in the surface skim during the low light conditions they normally fall under. It is best to use a skim net to determine if the fall is underway.