may fly hatch?

[Dahitman44]

What do people know about the May Flies?

I know they had a huge hatch and that really has hurt the Big C production. We fished last night and it was slow. With the full moon they should have been hitting more but with the bellies full of flies ...

What do people know about mayflies? Do they hatch on all lakes at the smae time? is it temperature based?

What other lakes have had a big hatch?

How soon will the May Flies leave and the 'eyes will be hungey again?

Hitman

[Code-Man]

Pelican had a huge hatch 2/3 weeks ago. We actually caught walleyes but not as many as hoped but they were all decent sized.

Most bigger lakes will have a Mayfly hatch but since water temps this year a bit later we haven't had the hatches yet. Usually there are 2 hatches early and mid summer. I've been told that when they hatch and come out of the water their alive for 24 hrs and only breed and then die. Would suck to be a male and get stood up eh? lol

We've gotten fish during and after but we usually end up down sizing our baits and when we do get fish their decent sized ones. My history is the small 6-16" eyes will feast like crazy but the biggers one rarely do so don't know if this is just my observation or what not but just any fish food is their and it's easy they will eat it.

[paceman]

Most lakes around here had their hatch a few weeks ago. One calm morning during the hatch I had fish jumping out of the water all around me. I pulled a small spinner with a leech. Caught my limit in about 45 minutes. The walleyes will still eat other bait even when the mayflies hatch.

[Dahitman44]

Both great info guys.

[fisherdog19]

It is mostly water temperature based.

[watersguy]

The mayfly is a major player in the whole aquatic food chain. they spend a year on the bottom of the lake as a larvae, pretty much a disgusting looking little creature. They have a wing sack which is filled with gas, really a little bubble on thier back which the water pressure keeps intact. When the time comes for them to hatch into a fly they will swim from the bottom in masse and as they reach the surface the wing sack bursts and they shed thier body casing. They sit on the water and flutter thier wings untill dry and then take flight. The females will then land on the water and drop their eggs and promptly die. they have a 24 hour life span as an adult at best. the fish gorge on the larvae as they are swimming to the surface before they ever make it to the fly stage. It is a small percentage of adult mayflies that the fish eat most are eaten before they hit the surface. there are numerous mayfly types from very small ones to the largest Hexagenia which swarm area lakes they are up to 2 inches in length. these varieties hatch at different times so you can have numerous hatches on a given lake. I took up fly fishing a number of years ago and have had a blast catching walleyes during the hatch, not on the surface but using a sinking line and flies that imitate the larvae as they swim to the surface. Let the fly sink to the bottom and then strip it back as though it is darting for the surface.

[RedDog3]

I love the mayfly hatch... it gives me a good excuse as to why I didn't catch any fish - along with the changing weather pattern.

[ScottsShopInHawl]

What do people know about the May Flies?

[tweedlap]

Fished Leech the last couple of days. There is a hatch going on and it is about to get a lot bigger. The graph had clouds of them, almost everywhere, over 13'.

We did not catch a walleye on leeches or crawlers. The fish we caught were all out of the slot and were taken pulling cranks. Speed: 3.4 mph.

tweed