8/1/08:  Hot midsummer weather brings with it the most anticipated hatch of the season for myself and many other fly fishermen - the Tricos.  Tricorythodes stygiatus, T. alectus, and T. minutas are the three known variations of this tiny mayfly; the stygiatus flavor is found on most fertile limestone streams and tailwaters in PA.  Starting by mid-July, the blackish-bodied male Tricos hatch overnight and hang out awaiting the arrival of the light-olivish females early in the morning.  In the summer heat females emerge soon after sunrise to join the males, but into September and October they're likely to appear more sporadically and later in the day as morning temperatures become cooler.  Either way, the spinners gather in thick swarms over the water to mate, and eventually die.  Some fishermen believe that it's prudent to start fishing with a male imitation because the males die immediately after mating and may therefore be present on the water first, and then switch to the lighter female imitation later in the event, being that they survive longer after mating to lay eggs and may even return to the swarm to mate again.  To imagine that a trout eating hundreds of miniscule bugs in the course of a few hours is eating only the blackish ones for a certain time, and then only the light-olive ones at another time is insanity.  There's no need to further complicate things - all of my imitations have black bodies, and the trout don't seem to mind.  A drag-free drift is by far the most important key to success when fishing the Trico hatch.  Though larger in the west, an imitation tied on a size 24 hook is right on for Tricos in Pennsylvania.  I've never encountered a need to go smaller, and one could probably have success with a size larger.  I believe the defining characteristic of the Trico, from a trout's point of view, to be the disproportionately large thorax.  Tails are optional, though they do help with upright floatation.  Traditionally, the spent-wing spinner is the most imitated stage and will produce well throughout the hatch.  However, a dun tied with a few wraps of hackle instead of spent wings works just as well, if not better, in my opinion.  Tippet size is a matter of preference, of course, and depends on the type of water one is fishing.  7x may be required for more wary trout, but 6x or even 5x will catch fish.  Have fun this summer!