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Basspro69
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You can still do pretty good during mayfly hatches. Smallmouth will still bite even when they are full of mayflies. Trout are easier to find during mayfly hatches, and walleyes will still hit cranks, and leeches during a hatch .
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Mcmuffin007
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walleyejunky: "just returned from Ensign and Disappointment. Mayflies were hatching on both lakes starting Saturday (June 12th) on Ensign and Monday (June 14th) on Disappointment. We were lucky and still had decent fishing."
How long do the hatches usually last?
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bobbernumber3
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Water temps around Ely are 70 to 74 degrees. Mayflies have been hatching the last three days.
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Mcmuffin007
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Headed up next week. Wondering what everyone is seeing up there regarding hatches. Are we seeing any big hatches? What's the water temp? Water temp here in central Iowa is low 80s and that's practically unheard of in early June.
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Mcmuffin007
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bobbernumber3: "Water temps around Ely are 70 to 74 degrees. Mayflies have been hatching the last three days."
Is that just around the local lakes? I am guessing its pretty much the same all around. I am headed up through Mudro up to Gun. How long do they usually hatch for?
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rdgbwca
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Thanks to everyone for sharing their Mayfly hatch experience. I haven't experienced one of these yet and it is helpful.
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Savage Voyageur
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I was up there on June 2 and there was a mayfly hatch. It did not stop the Walleye bite for us.
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bobbernumber3
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Mcmuffin007: "bobbernumber3: "Water temps around Ely are 70 to 74 degrees. Mayflies have been hatching the last three days."
Is that just around the local lakes? ....."
Shagawa, Birch, and Big Lakes. Cooler nights now and water temps are varying a little.
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WhiteWolf
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Was in the BW late May and the Walleye fishing was great. Just got back from Rainy and with water temps around 66-71F the mayflies are going nuts. Tough eye fishing temps right now as they are in transition from shallow to deep water ( at least in Rainy). Did catch ONE 28.5" eye, photo taken and let go, but no fish fry. Crankbait in 30' of water.
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rdgbwca
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djwillco: "Was just on Little Sag and there was a hatch around 6/19. Swarms of Mayflies just off camp. Made for great Trout Fishing. We were catching them right off the campsite as they were rising to eat the flies."
What were you using to catch them?
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djwillco
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rdgbwca: "djwillco: "Was just on Little Sag and there was a hatch around 6/19. Swarms of Mayflies just off camp. Made for great Trout Fishing. We were catching them right off the campsite as they were rising to eat the flies."
What were you using to catch them?"
We caught them casting with spoons and swimbaits. We also caught them trolling with spoons and 15-20ft rapalas (also used a 30ft rapala, which I thought would be most effective, but did not catch any with those ones). I was a little surprised because everyone was saying they were 60-80ft deep.
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djwillco
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Was just on Little Sag and there was a hatch around 6/19. Swarms of Mayflies just off camp. Made for great Trout Fishing. We were catching them right off the campsite as they were rising to eat the flies.
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Mcmuffin007
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djwillco: "rdgbwca: "djwillco: "Was just on Little Sag and there was a hatch around 6/19. Swarms of Mayflies just off camp. Made for great Trout Fishing. We were catching them right off the campsite as they were rising to eat the flies."
What were you using to catch them?"
We caught them casting with spoons and swimbaits. We also caught them trolling with spoons and 15-20ft rapalas (also used a 30ft rapala, which I thought would be most effective, but did not catch any with those ones). I was a little surprised because everyone was saying they were 60-80ft deep. "
Wow! We won’t be fishing any lakes that deep. I think Gun lake is maybe 50 feet at it’s deepest. Thanks for the intel.
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egknuti
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I usually do a trip around June 20th. It seems there is at least two hatches during my trip. I actually don’t think it’s had a negative effect on my fishing. In fact, I think it has improved it. I think there are additional factors at play if the fish aren’t biting.
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4keys
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Just got back today from a trip. Spent the evenings watching the mayfly hatch. Thousands of dead just floating on the water. We were on Jordan Lake. Also fished Ima, Ensign, and a couple smaller lakes around those. Caught a total of 4 fish, and they were spitting out mayflies. Not the fishing my husband was hoping for! Glad we had a non-fish meal backup!
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snakecharmer
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Match the hatch! Spinners work well.
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HighnDry
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4keys: "Just got back today from a trip. Spent the evenings watching the mayfly hatch. Thousands of dead just floating on the water. We were on Jordan Lake. Also fished Ima, Ensign, and a couple smaller lakes around those. Caught a total of 4 fish, and they were spitting out mayflies. Not the fishing my husband was hoping for! Glad we had a non-fish meal backup!
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They're not all dead. Most emerge from the nymph stage and lay on the surface of the water, resting and "drying out" their wings. This is when mayflies are most vulnerable to being consumed by fish. If the bugs survive this phase, they recover and fly. I saw a slew of them floating on the Loon River on my way up to Loon Lake. They were gone when I returned a week later, either eaten or in flight. I also witnessed a dragonfly take down and eat a mayfly on the top of Devil's Cascade last week while I was doing a portage rest stop. I'd never seen that before.
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TheOnion
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4keys: "Just got back today from a trip. Spent the evenings watching the mayfly hatch. Thousands of dead just floating on the water. We were on Jordan Lake. Also fished Ima, Ensign, and a couple smaller lakes around those. Caught a total of 4 fish, and they were spitting out mayflies. Not the fishing my husband was hoping for! Glad we had a non-fish meal backup!
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This explains a lot about my trip. I was on Ensign 6/25-6/27 and the fishing was tough. Everyone I talked to out there had similar issues. The smallies were just nowhere to be found and that is very odd on Ensign. They weren't even there for the evening top water bite. Out of those 3 days I caught 4 fish, all largemouth. I have been on Ensign 4 times and it is usually a great smallie lake.
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Mcmuffin007
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TheOnion: "4keys: "Just got back today from a trip. Spent the evenings watching the mayfly hatch. Thousands of dead just floating on the water. We were on Jordan Lake. Also fished Ima, Ensign, and a couple smaller lakes around those. Caught a total of 4 fish, and they were spitting out mayflies. Not the fishing my husband was hoping for! Glad we had a non-fish meal backup!
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This explains a lot about my trip. I was on Ensign 6/25-6/27 and the fishing was tough. Everyone I talked to out there had similar issues. The smallies were just nowhere to be found and that is very odd on Ensign. They weren't even there for the evening top water bite. Out of those 3 days I caught 4 fish, all largemouth. I have been on Ensign 4 times and it is usually a great smallie lake. "
We were up the week of 6-22 on Boot, Fairy and Gun. The smallmouth I caught were literally puking up mayflies. We caught 5 walleye over the course of the week. Pike were hitting all week and we got to eat fish a few times. It is what it is, great trip none the less.
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mgraber
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Mayflies don't always have a negative effect on fishing, and in fact can trigger a bite. That being said, I can absolutely guarantee you that after a really large hatch, the fishing can be almost impossible, and the fish you do catch can look like they are going to explode. During a hatch is good, after a hatch can be very bad. Small hatches have little effect.
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casualbriday
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I fished rainy (the Canadian side) shortly after a big hatch a few years ago (there were plenty of spinners in the water) and the smallmouth bite was dead slow, the walleye bite was ok (iirc bottom bouncers with live bait in 23'-25' at 0.9mph worked best, jigging was second best), and the pike bite was on fire. No big pike, though, just lots of mid-upper 20s hitting anything shiny.
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Mcmuffin007
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egknuti: "I usually do a trip around June 20th. It seems there is at least two hatches during my trip. I actually don’t think it’s had a negative effect on my fishing. In fact, I think it has improved it. I think there are additional factors at play if the fish aren’t biting. "
About 20 years ago we were up in the BWCA and the mayflies were so thick the dead were clumped up on the surface of the water like carpet. The fishing was extremely tough that year. Maybe we just caught it on an unusually heavy hatch year? I haven’t been up there again and seen it like that, I guess that scarred me.
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walleyejunky
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just returned from Ensign and Disappointment. Mayflies were hatching on both lakes starting Saturday (June 12th) on Ensign and Monday (June 14th) on Disappointment. We were lucky and still had decent fishing.
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Mcmuffin007
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Roughly when do we start seeing the Mayfly hatches? I was up in 2018 the third week of June and we didn't run into anything. I was curious from some of you "every year" pros what you have seen in the past. I was up in the BWCA years ago and the hatch was insane. Made the fishing next to impossible.
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mgraber
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It really varies according to not only the temp/weather, but also water body size. Small bodies of water warm up faster. We have seen them up there from around the 3rd week in June, all the way through July. But you never really know when or where or how large the hatch will be. I feel like they are the worst in late June and the first half of July.
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QueticoMike
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If you see smallmouth feeding on them throw a small pop-r in that direction.
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Gopher02
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I always feel like fourth of July on the big water is prime for a bug hatch.
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