Mayfly tricks/One more report

[Hodag 1]

Hi Herbie.

Thank you for all your reports and help.

We are leaving for Eagle Lake early Friday AM and I'm leaving the laptop at home.

If possible, can you share your mayfly tricks and provide us with one more report before our adventure. I have a feeling that we'll encounter the hatch next week.

Thanks again Herbie.

[Steve Herbeck]

it's up in the air but you will very likley see some affects.the hatch started in ernest on most of eagle sat.after a week of just an inclincing which really only stimulated the bite. we are seeing some affects now but not the end of the world,how long it will last is up to mother nature.
the mayfly hatch puts the fear of god into anglers and yes it can slow fishing down some but with some modifications of presentations and the way you approach your day you can still end up with outstanding catches. for instance we had gillespie filming,came in sun pm.,day after the first 2 heavy hatches,2 days is all we had and he wanted 2 shows to go home with,ok,we went to the coldest water in the lake to get behind the hatch best we could vs going to the shallowest mud bottomed part of the lake and concentrated on heavy cabbage beds and caught alot of nice 19-24" walleyes along with a 14-15# pike,stopped for an hr caught a bunch of bass,and ended the day fishing deeper water breaks with big chubs and boated a 27" and a 31" (losing 2 other big fish) to cap off a good day on the water and a good show. the show will be aired next sat. 2nd day he and danny fly into a deep clear lake to show we do many diff things here also to try and be ahead of a hatch vs going into a shallow mud bottomed lake (that were all smok'n last week)and boated 200+ walleyes 60+ 24-30" . john said it was his best day of inland walleye fishing in 800+ shows,all during the peak of the mayfly hatch. the fly in show will be shown mid july. if it would have been last week or next week we might have reversed philosphys,so key here is try and fish lakes or sections of lakes you are either ahead or behind the hatch when ever you can and it can be done, diff. lakes,or sections of lakes depending on make up,depth,bottom composition,etc. don't all hatch or at least heavily at exactly the same time.
right now we have fish both in the weeds and on the reefs moving up and down from 18 to as deep as 32'.
obviously the fish in deep water will be less affected than the fish on the mud flats and thats has been proved last few days though some good catches have been coming out of emerging cabbage beds also just spots with heavy action vs several fish here and there are more scattered than last week when flats and weeds were THE dominate pattern.
REMEMBER THEY ARE GORGING,so going to smaller presentations like leeches,tails of crawlers,smaller minnows on light wire hooks or very lite jigs 1/32-1/64 when fishing weeds (though bigger minnows are always better when fishing deep),,slip bobbers, long lindy rigs, in other words finesse presentations are one way to go,give them a very natural presntation dessert instead of a full meal which they already have had the night before.
the death hook technique with a 1/3 crawler can be deadly during a hatch regardless if fishing 6' or 30' of water.
on 6'-16' flats take a small #0 or 1 colorado spinner rig in in gold or silver with a tail of a crawler and a very lite weight very slowly elec trolled with a long line,let it sink and flutter to the bottom then with a long rod slowly pull it towards the surface,dropping your rod tip and stopping the trolling motor to coast while it sinks fluttering down with a few twitches of the rod tip then start back up and very slowly pull it towards the surface repeating the process,it imitates a hatching mayfly.
another opposite tactic is to try and trigger fish.
trolling smaller shallow running cranks a bit faster than normal off boards and long lined will usually will put some fish in the boat especially in the pms. over the flats or deeper divers like shad raps or flicker shads on the edges of breaks and weedlines during the day.
i've seen where casting and cranking/ripping rattle traps or snap jigging spoons produced big fish.
it isn't as bad as it's made out to be,yes it can slow things down some but it isn't the end of the world and if you're where walleyes are you will catch fish even sticking with conventioanl methods,many just use it as an excuse when they don't catch fish,it''s a good one and one that has some merit,but.....
good luck and stay positive thats the main thing.
steve
AML

[Mark Benson]

Herbie:

Good stuff on the first Gillespie show!!!

Mark

[Rondogpike]

I watched the show as well. Big-Beautiful walleye Danny boated!