I noticed a huge hatch of these yesterday on the upper Mississippi River near Monticello. The size looked around 14 or 16 and I think it is some type of mayfly. The SMB were really gorging on them too.
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You’re killing me! Every time I go to Monti it’s me and 10,000 guys walking into my cast and nobody catching any fish. You go up there and hit a Blue winged Olive hatch? Jealous!!!!
SR
You’re killing me! Every time I go to Monti it’s me and 10,000 guys walking into my cast and nobody catching any fish. You go up there and hit a Blue winged Olive hatch? Jealous!!!!
SR
They were so keyed on these about 90 minutes before sundown they shut down on everything else for the most part. At a minimum I wish I had a small topwater popper. I have seen trout key in on only flies but never SMB like this.
I also sent you a PM with some additional details.
Amazing. It would be tough to hit that just right this time of year. The weather would have to be just perfect for this to come off. What a thing to see, even if you didn’t have any dry flies to toss out there. Pretty cool!
There are actually dozens of different species of mayflies that are similarly colored, and collectively called “Blue Winged Olives”. A lot of them are much smaller than the ones you saw yesterday.
I’ve gone up to Monti several times, always on foot and wading. I’ve seen very, very fish caught. Dozens of people all over the place including some real jerks who walk right on top of the water you’re trying to fish. I quit going up there, figured it wasn’t worth the exasperation. Maybe if I had a shallow running boat and could get away from the bozos it would help.
SR
As a starting point I would look into the Baetis Mayflies. They tend to be the first mayfly hatch of the year. Many of them tend to be smaller but it looked like some of them could get into the 16 or 14 size (basically 7-9mm). If it is a baetis it would likely be the first hatch of that brood which tends to be the largest. Maybe due to the Miss being warmer (in general) they grow a little bigger than what you’d see on a trout stream???
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