fishflys and walleye

[jeremy L]

I hear alot of people saying that after the fishflys come out, the walleyes will shut down for awhile because they eat themselfs stupid, to put it lightly;) , on these flys. My question: what flys are they talking about? do they mean mayflys or are they talking about those very tiny gnats that drive people crazy or something else? thanks!

[kbkrause]

Mayflys

[Crooked Dave]

Jeremy,
Funny you bring up the word "Fishfly". My wife (from southeast MI) uses that term and I (southwest MI) have never heard that term until last evening when I returned home from fishing. May be a link to Lake Erie...anyways the hatch is alive up here and action was awesome on Pickeral/Crooked lakes. It did, however, get to a point where neither the stickbaits, nor planer boards were running well. I attribute this to the buildup of wiggler carcasses on the line, and what a gob of mess. Best of luck to you.
CD

[Gone Fishing]

Fishflies = Bad fishing. Don't believe a word of it. Get out there and whack some Eyes!

[jeremy L]

The main reason i asked this question was because i really have never seen a time when the eyes won't bite because of too many bugs, i thought i was missing something or maybe these flys were only found in some parts of the state. I guess i'm not.

BTW, anyone ever try fly fishing for eyes with a mayfly larva or mayfly imitation?

[The Whale]

Mayfly rigs. Tie 'em up yourself.

Snell up your favorite #6 single hook, add two/three, 5/32" (1/8" even) "off yellow" beads, a small brass/copper blade. That's it. Stab a 2" piece of crawler in the MIDDLE on the hook ("wing" action), and pull along near bottom as emerging flys. Deadly.


Whale :) :cool:

[mickey]

The flies you are referring to are the Hexagenia limbata. The one all us flyfishers wait for....:)

[Beave]

If you've ever been fishing up at Houghton lake when they hatch, it's a site to see. We aren't talking about a few of them, they can be so thick you can barely see.

It's like a feeding orgy for the critters too. The birds will scarf so many down I think they're in a food coma. They don't even move until you get around 4 feet away from them, and then they fly just far enough away to avoid you.

The fish pretty much shut right off too. I'm not going to say we didn't still catch a fish or two, but last time I was up there and there was a major hatch we were catching limits of eyes in half a day of fishing. The mayflys hatch and we were catching one or two a day for the rest of the week.

[jeremy L]

Here is something i just remember looking at awhile back. They must have been thick this day for the NWS's radar to pick them up.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/mayfly.htm