We stopped by the 494 access this afternoon to have a look at the river. It’s very low and very slow. We also encountered hundreds and hundreds of big brown Mayfly duns. I’m not sure if these are Hex or Brown Drakes, either way they’re big and there are a lot of them. Time to hit Pool 2 with some big dry flies.
S.R.
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Interesting, we fished the upper end and didn’t see much today. Just a lot of mating dragonflies landing all over our boat.
Walleyes still hitting crankbaits!
I was down there with my son. He had a heck of a good time chasing those things around. The number of flies on the trees and bushes was incredible!
Upper end of Pepin had a massive hatch about 3 weeks ago.
They sure come when they want, and without notice, and they come in hoards. 
These little buggers have been absolutely horrid during some of the night time cat outings. You know your in trouble when the woods next to your boat is “humming.” Turn on your lights, and in seconds the boat is covered.
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Not my photo, but this was at the Kwik Trip in SSP last night!
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Not my photo, but this was at the Kwik Trip in SSP last night!
Wow. Lol, wonder how many people pulled up, saw that, and immediately NOPED out
I forgot the outside light on last night, and had a pretty good pile of them in the driveway this morning. I’m sure happy those little moths Dirk posted don’t make it this far off the river because they’ve been awful lately.
As annoying as a mayfly hatch can be, they are a true indicator species to the quality of the water conditions.
The fact that we are seeing the biggest hatches we have seen in the past 50 years is actually a sure sign that the river is the cleanest it has been in a long, long time!
We are finally doing some things right, and Mother Nature is responding well. Habit is key for all of our fish species!
A pain in the neck, but it is really good to see!
Rainy had a very light Mayfly hatch last week. Dragons mating everywhere.
“Have you caught walleyes on the flyrod Steve?”
Yes I have, but not with a Mayfly imitation. These Mayflies mate and lay their eggs at dusk, so you have to be there at the right time. After laying their eggs the females die and just lay there on the water. I’ve seen big schools of Carp on Pool 2 slowly swimming upstream and vacuuming these spent Mayflies off the surface.
The Walleyes I have caught with a flyrod all came on a fly called a “Clouser Minnow, a pattern developed by a guy name Bob Clouser specifically for Smallmouth. It’s basically the fly fishing equivalent to a hair jig. Swinging one of these flies through a current seam or over a wingdam would be a very similar presentation. I should try that again some time, it was kind of fun.
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I remember last year during the hatch the walleyes(mostly smaller) were going NUTS plucking them off the surface, “pop, pop, pop,” it sounded like pannies eating on the surface! I caught two walleyes on a popper during that time. Would be fun with a 3 wt fly Rod!
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