bug hatch!!

As many have mentioned prior….yes we have a bug hatch on Mille Lacs!! and yes they have found their way over to the eastside of the lake I had to get the gas leaf blower out this am and blow the little buggers away from the garage door.

I hope my guide trip clients today don’t freak out and drive off when they arrive!

Please…we need a wind switch

Bob Sunday looks good for you. 22 MPH out of the west.

Better fuel up that Blower.

this isn’t about bugs, but I watched the radar screen a few times, seemed to be a few times where some bands of rain went through, what did you guys get for moisture on the pond?

that wasn’t rain, that is how bad the bug hatch was, they showed up on radar. the wind has been good as far as the bug hatch goes down here on cove bay.. there are a few swarms above the trees out on mazaminee point, nothing here inside the bay yet, but we will get our share when the wind blows this way…………….tom fellegy

The bug hatch on big point was huge, both friday and saturday. There were so many of them that the sound they were making was drowning out the sound of the waves crashing on shore. At times the swarms looked like mini tornadoes .Pretty spooky

last night coming off the water at 9:30pm…..it was like you were in a dust storm! from the surface of the lake on up it was thick!! one of the biggest hatches I’ve seen or experienced!!! My boat is full of them they looked to be heading SW
Around the house this morning we don’t have too many, they are sure to be REAL BAD someplace!!!!

So Bob is the fishing still good after the bug hatch????

Not sure if it was the bug hatch or not but the fishing really slowed for us this weekend.

The last two weekends we lit it up but this weekend we managed a few fish here and a few fish there but had a hard time getting them to go. We still marked all kinds of fish but the bite, at least for us was slow. Still fun – we managed around 8-10 fish a day with some nice slot fish and a few eaters for the pan.

I look forward to my first trip out to the flats this coming Sat. Up to this point I have worked reefs and shoreline breaks.

It was a little slow for me on Friday, had a guide trip and boated 15 or so fish with 5 slots. Last evening I had a limit b4 9:15 pm. Some areas the fish are going well where others are slow! Thats fishing in late May I guess

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they are sure to be REAL BAD someplace!!!!

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Maybe they’re being attracted to Tuckners skunky smelling boat!

I was out on the mud Sunday Night doing some corking. At 9:45 we made our treck into shore and like Bobber said “it was a dust storm”. Except worse. Those buggers hurt when your taking them off the pupils at 30 mph. They were thick would be an understatement.

I looked over to my buddy and asked for the “Safety Goggles”. My boat floor was covered with bugs by the time I reached shore. I could not see my boat floor in spots. It was nasty.

Still cleaning them out of the boat. Bring it to the Power washer today.

Bugs. Many MANY bugs.
Ish.

Chappy….

Lip,
Don’t you have a windshield on your rig?

Lip
How was the fishing?

Sunday night, that was as bad as I have seen the bugs, that I can recall. They were constantly buzzing from the NE to the SW, Zillions of them, for 4 hours straight. There was no end to em. About 9:30, when we were pulling anchor, to the south toward Big Point, it looked like a brown fog. They were so thick, it was ridiculous. I did manage to boat a 22″ and a 17″. Glad this only happens once a year.

big g

I have the low Ranger shields, but you can’t see through them at night so well. So I was just peeking over the top of the windshield. I was taking bugs to the noggen like it was going out of style. I’m still picking them out of my hair, Stacie picked another one out of my ear last night. I had to throw away my new white visor. It was not white anymore.

Wab, Fish are biting. However, I can not find a consistent pattern of bigger slot fish. I’m not finding any schools of them just one here one there. I have boated only one Pig so far but have seen quite a few others. I have been corking, casting, trolling, pulling spinners and rigging pretty much all the “Classic” areas except for Gravel out in the middle.

Find transisiton areas and you will normally find fish.

Yeah the guy that was fishing with me on Friday had a grey sweatshirt on and it looked pretty bad by the end of the day.

Thanks – We have really expereinced much of the same. Looking forward to next Sat. already. Minus the bugs of course.

Took me the better part of the day to clean the boat of the hatch, bug splatter, EVERYWHERE, carpet, compts, seats hull!! Now I have to get after the truck which has about a half inch of solids on the front! The kicker is I just detailed the truck and boat before the big weekend!!

BIRDDOG

So is there any EASY way to get then out of carpet??? I haven’t tried cleaning my boat yet. I’m not looking forward to the task

The carpet was the toughest. I power washed the heck out of my carpet, went over it thoroughly several times to get every last bug out. They all came out, no stains. Can’t say the same for my seats, I have lots of bug stains from sitting on and squashing them, in fact the wife pointed out tonight that my new Columbia pants are stained and ruined, she even treated the bug stains before hand. The seats and truck are tomorrows project.

Did anyone notice the little gob of goo many of the hatch was flying around with? It was very greasy, are those eggs? It seems like this was the cause of much of the dark greenish staining on the seats and hull.

BIRDDOG

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Did anyone notice the little gob of goo many of the hatch was flying around with? It was very greasy, are those eggs? BIRDDOG

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Yes. The goo holds the eggs together and also provides food for the larvae to feed on when the eggs hatch. Here is a good link about aquatic midges (i.e., blind mosquitoes):
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IG092

Good read! Thanks.

BIRDDOG

Cleaning my boat tonight after work.

I should have taken pics. I hope all the crap comes off and out.

Well, I JUST finished the job! Honestly, 2 full days detailing the boat and truck. They were much tougher to remove from the grill of the truck a day later. Did I mention the bugs smashed in to the truck interior, sweet!

My boat seats?? Not sure they will ever be unstained again, terrible. Anyone know a GOOD seat/vinyl cleaner, I tried both brands I have, 3m and a off brand, no go, stains are still there, everywhere!! What a mess…

BIRDDOG

I have used a tire cleaner on my seats before with pretty good luck. Might want to give that a try.

seafoam makes a product(bug b gone)that works good for removing bugs etc.I would read the label before trying it on the seats and carpet.

My carpet is what I cannot get clean – sucks

Same here Wabasha. Although I did not spend a ton of time on her. I have to bring it back up tomorrow. No sense of spending days cleaining it 2 times.

My thought exactly!