Mayflies?

I’m new at this web thing, so please be gentle! Just wondering if anyone has any favorite techniques during the fly hatch that they may want to share?

Welcome to the board man! We need guys like you here to set people straight. This isnt going to help but my favorite practice when the mayflies are out is to have a beer in one hand and a 5 iron in the other. But seriously, I downsize my baits, big time. Also, when the fish are feeding on those damn things I tend to fish much slower, I dont think the bass are as active basically because the dont have to be in order to eat the amount of food that they usually do. How about you?

JHall

This is a unique technique that worked for us one day a couple of summers ago. We were fishing along a rocked island with a little current along it. We saw a couple of smallies rise on mayflies on the surface, but it was slow. We tried some poppers (Cuhg Bug or Pop-R) and got one or two. Then my dad accidentally got caught in a branch over the water. When trying to shake it loose, a TON of mayflies fell and flew out of the branch. As a bunch of them hit the water, a feeding frenzy seemed to start and pick up steam, and suddenly our poppers were geting hit every cast. The more aggressively we worked them the more we would get hit. I think the sound of other smallies feeding and the commotion kind of “turned on” a feed amongst the school. From then on, we worked our poppers very aggressive, to sound like multiple fish feeding, and it seemed to get the school up and feeding at times. This was very early in the morning though, so maybe they weren’t all full of flies by that time.

Most of my fishing experiences when the flys are out are the same as JHall’s. But if you can find a feeding school and get them “activated”, you may have some success.

At the risk of sounding like a complete moron are mayflies referred to as “fish flies” by some? I know what mayflies are and what they look like, but I was talking to somebody who kept saying the fish fly hatch had occured.

has anyone ever tried using some kind of mayfly presentation on a fly rod or something. if they eat the mayflies, i don’t know why it wouldn’t work .

i was just thinking about the same thing for walleye during the mayfly hatch. they aren’t surface feeders so they must be eating the larvae, so why wouldn’t you be able to catch them on a mayfly larvae imatation??

is there any soft plastic that imatates a mayfly???

I wouldn’t classify this as way to deal with a mayfly hatch but I have come across big fish feeding on sunfish that are feeding on the mayflies. I know Jhall has fished the same willow but when I see a hatch I head for the tree and if there are sunfish feeding there I’ll catch a good fish or two there feeding on the sunnies. The first time it happened I caught back-to-back 4 lbs class largemouth and smallmouth.

Same thing bass baron, at least in my neck of the woods.

Riverfan,

SHHHH…. theres only so many of those, we dont need any more company. And now that you say it, those fish are either there or not, and I wonder if they move up into that area from down south a little ways (if you know what im saying) because it narrows and all the hatchcomes right to them there?

I have seen what mossboss and riverfan are talking about. I was fishing a club T on pool 10 a few years ago right in the middle of a strong mayfly hatch. My partner and I caught 50 or so largemouth in about 5 hours. This was only my partners 3rd tournament and did not have the most accurate casting ability. We were fishing the upstream side of a very small island (10 yards across) and an outside bend of a narrow running slough both with overhanging bushes. We pulled up to the island and were fishing firetiger crankbaits. My partners first cast went into the bushes on the Island. Getting his bait back dropped a ton of mayflies into the water and the gills went nuts followed by the bass attacking the gills. I caught 2 keepers and a few shorts and my partner caught a bunch of shorts all on cranks right at the shore line. This took us about an hour to fish it out. We moved up to the outside bend (only a few hundred yard up from the island) and I caught one short and my partner again ended up in the bushes. Again a ton of mayflies ended up dropping in the water and with the clear water I could see the gills hanging around the shoreline sucking down the mayflies. every once in a while there was a bass slashing up and grabbing a gill. I finished out my limit in about 10 casts and my partner caught a bunch of shorts. I don’t know what the deal was, but all he could catch was shorts. I was done fishing at about 8:00am and then I just played guide for the rest of the day. I tied on a slop frog and would occasionally cast into the bushes to shake down some mayflies and get the feeding frenzy started again. My partner ended up with about 30 shorts for the day and no keepers. I had my limit early and only caught about a dozen shorts. After I had my limit I offered my rod and bait and he did fish it for a few hours with no keepers to show. Anyways, I had good luck getting the mayflies to drop in the water, which brought up the gills, and then the bass. Good luck and tight lines. Jeff Wolfe

thanks for the tips. the best i’ve found is a small 1/8 oz. brown jig with a twin tail yammy grub in junebug. Seems like you can whack’em when they’re emerging, but when they become an adult it gets tough ! Just testing the waters to see if I was missing the boat in this time of the year. JC, you didn’t miss out on anything on pool 7 that I was seating on when you came around.

Jimmy,
You crack me up. You know why those fish were there and with another big hatch last night there is a goood chance they will be back.. your not tossing me a little smoke are ya..
Actually the slop bite should start this week in a couple areas I like up there. One area BlueFleck and I stopped at was waiting for some specific veggies to die out and will be on fire in about 2 weeks. I just hope there is still enough water to there.
Are you fishing mary’s tourney this Sunday?
jc

Yep, they are the one and the same… Like in prefishing some call strikes pickups and some call them carries. I call them blessings.
jc

i wouldn’t blow smoke in anyone’s face- unless they were in my way

i agree with most of these techniques. the most consistant success that i have had with large hatches is finding specific places where there is a current break and overhanging vegetation. find this and all types of fish will be stacked along it. i tried a large mayfly pattern on the flyrod last year early in the morning in one such location and had a hay day with the white bass. we didn’t catch any bass there at all but i’m sure it would have worked. i didnt’ have a chance to try any other places becuz i managed to let my fly box fly out of the boat and lose all of about 300 flies and i haven’t tried since.