Miserable Mayfly Emerger Nymphs!!!!

[Drewski Canuck]

Well the walleye were stuffed with mayfly nymphs at Calling Lake on the weekend.

Walleye were off the bottom and there was a pretty nice hatch going on with the mayflies.

Fish were well off the bottom and with polarized glasses and the clear water we could watch walleye cruising around in 4 - 8 FOW ahead of the boat as we drifted.

Lucikly there must have been minnows and perch also feasting off the bottom as the walleye did fall for the jig steadily, but fast retrieves and off the bottom.

So I went to the Fishin Hole to see if they had an emerger pattern in size 10 to try on the Whites that were also on the nymphs, and sure enough a Brown Mayfly Emerger pattern was found that short of a fine split tail on the real thing, should work out fine.

I'll report the results if this works on the Whites!!

Drewski

[goldscud]

Great fun fly fishing for whitefish with a slowly twitched pheasant tail on a long leader

[mtnhunter]

Any luck with the whitefish on mayfly nymphs Drewski?


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[Drewski Canuck]

Did not get out last weekend! Had a friend's Retirement party to go to, and projects at home to do. I will be up there this weekend and am hoping for calm conditions so the mayflies are active.

There is a special type of mayfly at Calling Lake which is extremely large for a mayfly. When the hatch is on, it is amazing to watch.

On the fish flies, which can hatch in the millions, it is common to see columns into the sky 100 feet and easily 15 feet wide. The buzz from such a bunch of flies is incredible.

Drewski

[Drewski Canuck]

Did not get out last weekend! Had a friend's Retirement party to go to, and projects at home to do. I will be up there this weekend and am hoping for calm conditions so the mayflies are active.

There is a special type of mayfly at Calling Lake which is extremely large for a mayfly. When the hatch is on, it is amazing to watch.

On the fish flies, which can hatch in the millions, it is common to see columns into the sky 100 feet and easily 15 feet wide. The buzz from such a bunch of flies is incredible. So much feed in the water makes the fishing frustrating and it is a miracle the fish can even swim with the amount of nymphs they eat during those hatches.

Drewski

[Drewski Canuck]

Report on slip bobber with double dropper fly combo on Calling Lake Whitefish.

Tried a bead head nymph on the bottom and the mayfly emerger in size 10 on the top about 18 inches apart.

LOTS of big (1.5 inch) mayflies, lots of dead spinners on the surface, should have been easy, right?

Tried in 8 FOW from top to bottom of water column. Did not work.

Tried in 20 FOW from top to bottom of the water column. Did not work.

Tried everything in between. Did not work.

Nothing worked on the whitefish, and clearly there were fish in the top 1/3 of the water column on the sounder.

I won't quite give up yet. Perhaps a wire worm alone is the ticket, but the mayfly nymph patterns are a bust for now.

Drewski