- Sep 13, 2002
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Photojournalist pal of mine posted this video today - apparently there was a fairly large mayfly hatch in Muscatine last night!!!
Ahh, living by the Mississippi River exposes you to the wonders of nature!
- Thread starter torbee
- Start date
Great video. As a teenager, I was at a Cedar Rapids Kernels away game at West Michigan when (after a storm delay) a large cloud of mayflies descended on the stadium and began falling dead on everyone/everywhere. Unfortunately this was before the days of camera phones.
Yeah, it looks like the fish have plenty to eat and will not be biting.
Welp, 45 years of fishing the same area on the Mississippi tells me that the hatch itself tends to drag out over a period of roughly 7 days, and usually a week after the final hatch is over with is when things begin picking up again.
Not to mention actual mechanics of fishing the area itself. On pool 11, the best spots are close to shore in the rip rap. Water is still sky high, which means bare rocky shore is hard to come by, which brings shoreline trees into play.
May flies can be so thick in the shoreline trees they'll weigh the branches down. The shoreline rip rap will hold dead may flies fouling up lures darn near every cast, live may flies will land constantly on the boat and you.
If the water was lower, bringing wing dam tips closer to the surface, those would be more in play. But they're 8-10 feet deeper than normal at the absolute least right now and there's precious few "walleye holding wing dams" on that pool anyway.
The hatch, at least in my stretch of home water...it just makes things a lot tougher to do unless you want to go catfishing - which I don't particularly care for (had enough of it as a kid).
We'll see. I also wish it wasn't, oh - going to be obscenely hot and humid all week also. I just haven't gotten the boat wet this year. A lock to lock boat ride would be a welcome diversion and is gonna happen no matter what just to clean the motor's pipes out so to speak.
Living by the Mississippi River exposes you to the
wonders of nature...............................Flooding.
.
wonders of nature...............................Flooding.
.
- Sep 13, 2002
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Grew up in Burlington. One summer day I answered the phone to a Seattle radio station wanting to interview someone where the mayflies were thick. Apparently there had been a national news story about mayflies being plentiful enough to make bridges slippery for drivers. I'm sure I made a pretty un-interesting interview. I know: CSB
When I was a kid we would fish at Lake Pepin and we would cast a big sinker up into the trees and the mayflies would fall into the lake and the water would boil with stripped bass. It was always a blast catching them as soon as your line hit the water.
I remember getting stuck in a big hatch as a kid coming back from Leech Lake in Minnesota. We had to pull the camper over because my dad couldn’t even see to drive. I thought it was pretty cool.
So what's the rest of the story? Did you camp there on the side of the road waiting for them to die?
When I was there (on the Mississippi) in the 60’s and 70’s it happened once a year. You could slide your car around doing cookies in a parking lot as if it had snowed.
Yep.
My sister made the mistake of parking her 1970 Torino under the camp lightpole at our cabin one night when they popped. This was located darn near right on the river itself.
An honest to gawd foot of may flies was on it the following morning.
She owned the car for about 5 years...every time she hit the vent fan switch, dead may flies flew out. It would sound like someone put a couple playing cards bicycle style on the fan blade.
- Sep 13, 2002
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I've had to walk through dense swarms of them before. So thick that I could barely keep my eyes open. It's unnerving to say the least. It makes you want to run. But, they don't bite and they aren't attracted to people. They're just flying around. They almost seem friendly....in a insect sort of way. Could be much worse.
Grew up in Dubuque. To this day I cannot eat Mac-N-Cheese because I found a nasty ass fish fly in mine one year. I hate those F things.
Worst mayfly hatch I experienced was on the Bass Islands in Lake Erie. The locals knew to cover their vehicles with covers, tarps, plastic, ect. The tourist (including myself) didn't know/weren't prepared for this. Fortunately the resort we were staying at took care of their guest and put plastic sheeting down over the vehicles in their parking lot.
I thanked and tipped heavily for that service.
Forgot to mention. The locals love the messy Lake Erie mayfly hatch. It is a sign that Lake Erie is no longer a toxic industrial dump and the water health has improved to the point to better support aquatic life.
Lesson learned? If you quit having mayflies on the Mississippi River......might be time to move.
I got shitfaced many a time at the bars in Put-in-bay. Good times.
If your destination wasn't the bars at Put-in-Bay.....when the mayflies hit you just as well dock it there.
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