Walleye can aggressively feed on may fly nymphs as they’re recovering from the stresses of spawning and from the long winter.   Although, walleye binge-feeding tapers come summer, they still target nymphs when available as not all hatches are the same and not all lakes are affected the same at the same time.  Catching walleye during summer mayfly hatches can be more challenging than in spring,  but can still be accomplished.

In the summer, the early stages of a mayfly hatch can produce good fishing as walleye will feed aggressively, competing for the small number of nymphs. However, when large hatches occur lakes can become overrun with food, and walleye tend to become extremely selective feeders.

Anglers need to downsize presentations to fool summer, nymph-feeding walleye. The particle size of nymphs tends to be a bit smaller than what people think the average-sized, adult walleye is going after. People may be fishing with presentations that are too large or don’t mimic emerging mayfly nymphs.  Depending on the species, nymphs can range in size from 0.5 to 1 inches in size. Aside from downsizing lures, anglers also need to fish exactly where walleye are feeding in the water column.

Anglers also need to move to where hatches happen.   During the mayfly hatch, walleye are generally up shallower. You will find walleye in water as shallow as three feet, even on sunny days.  When choosing where to fish flats, concentrate on breaks and holes and remember walleye always like to have deeper water adjacent to their feeding flats.

 Small jigs can be productive if walleye are bottom-feeding on nymphs during hatches. cocktail or Baraboo jigs are particularly deadly, as feathers and hair pulsate in the water. This can be the subtle movement that is needed to trigger finicky walleye. Evans finds deadsticking a cocktail jig can be effective for neutral or negative mood ‘eyes. What this does is give inactive walleye a chance to come over and examine the bait – this may get you a few more strikes on those really slow days.

When walleye are aggressively feeding on nymphs during a hatch in weedy areas, go to bait would be a bucktail jig in black, with either a red or white strip on the side. In the weedy flats be sure to fish aggressively and jigs these baits. This causes the feathers and hair to expand and contract giving the bucktail a life-like appearance.

To fish hatches, starts with small, jointed minnow baits, fished on a stop-and-go retrieve.  It’s important to mimic the action of the larva in the water as it floats up from the bottom, so a slow up and down cadence of your presentation is key.  If these baits do not produce, switch over to jigs and also to swim jigs and be sure to scale down to using two to three-inch piece of worm, leech or small minnow with 1/8 and even 1/16oz heads.   Work these baits along weed edges and over weed tops, searching for where walleye are located in the water column during a hatch.

Another productive bait to target walleye during a hatch is a weighted, single-hook spinner rig, featuring a small #3 Colorado or Indiana blade. Colorado and Indiana blades allow the lure to be retrieved slowly, matching a nymphs’ speed, while producing vibration and flash. Widely used on Lake Erie during hatches, it is often called a mayfly rig.

A more subtle variation of the mayfly rig (resembling a live-bait rig) is a No. 2 or 4 octopus hook tied below a sinker. Tip rigs with a small piece of live bait, anywhere from a half to two inches in size.

Dragging mayfly rigs along the bottom or slowly swimming them to the surface will imitate nymph activity. Other elements of the retrieve should include frequent pauses, stalls, and lifting the bait up again. Rigs can also be counted-down to target suspended walleye feeding on emerging nymphs.

During summer walleye feed on vulnerable mayfly nymphs during hatches. Using small baits and imitating a nymph’s erratic movements will take fish when traditional baits won’t get a sniff. Integrate the above strategies into your repertoire, and you’ll be turning mayfly hatches into opportunities for increased catches.

She picked up a free copy of the Bampton Guide and Town Trail as she wanted something to entertain the grandchildren who were due to arrive later in the day.

Yes it is that time again when grandparents look hassled and can’t wait until next weekend when the grandkids have gone home.

This afternoon, a chap came in with a plastic tub with water in it.

I enquired as to why and was told that it was sample of river water that was going to be shown to the local school children to explain what can be found.

He explained some of the creatures swimming about, the majority I never have heard of.

At least it means our river is pretty clean.

The long thing is a caddis fly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddisfly which has made a protective case of gravel etc.

There are also Mayfly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly nymphs in the water as well as other critters.

The poor mayfly lives in the water for about a year but when it emerges into the air it lasts only a few days at best.

They didn’t show me this sort of stuff when I went to school.

The last customer of the day came in with some National Savings Stamps to cash in but as they were about 60 years old and denominations such as sixpence, two shillings, two shillings and sixpence I couldn’t pay her out.

The best I did was to Google NSI and find out that she can send them in and they will pay-out on the face value…about a pound.

Maybe I will get her to send them Special Delivery to keep them safe (cost £5.90).

Did you know that next week starts our full day camp, Creek Peek!? Campers will do similar activities to Nature Explorers camp but more in depth. They will actually be putting on waders and getting into the river to explore!

The primitive state in all insects is two pairs of wings, each of which are essentially offshoots of the thoracic segments. Many of the more ancient insect taxa retain these two, almost identical pairs of wings (just imagine a dragonfly or a damselfly), while the more derived insects, such as flies, have tinkered with this original set-up so that the hind-wings have evolved into tiny, yet important vestiges known as halteres. In the beetles the fore-wings have evolved into very tough wing cases (eltyra), which protect the animal’s abdomen and its membranous hind-wings. In some of the beetles and the Strepsiptera it is the fore-wings that have evolved into haltere-like structures in a excellent example of evolutionary convergence. Some insects, e,g. certain stick insects have adapted to niches where there’s no need for wings and they have almost completely lost them.

Here's a Spanish robberfly roosting for the night on a flower head. The fore-wings are folded along the back, and the vestige of the right hind-wing, one of the halteres, is clearly visible as a yellow, stalked knob at the back of thorax. The halteres act like tiny gyroscopes and they are one reason why flies are among the most accomplished flying insects (Ross Piper)

Beetles still have two pairs of wings, but their first pair have evolved into protective cases, the elytra, while the hind-wings are membanous and can still be used for flight. The elytra protect the hind-wings and the abdomen. The majority of beetles can fly, although some of the larger species, such as this metallic green chafer from Trinidad are not the most graceful animal in the air (Ross Piper).

The Strepsiptera have to be among the weirdest of all the insects. This is a male Strepsiptera from Trinidad (not sure which genus, since the antennae are broken). In these insects it is the male's fore-wings that have evolved into halteres, while the hind-wings are used to propel the animal through the air (Ross Piper)

The huge variety of wing forms we see in the insects today had a starting point, but what was it? What structures did they evolve from hundreds of millions of years ago? Did they start off as as moveable bits of cuticle that helped terrestrial insects regulate their body temperature or did they evolve from the gills of juvenile aquatic insects? No one will ever know for sure, but some living insects give us a tantalizing glimpse of the possible origins of these structures. The nymph of a humble mayfly is one such creature.

On each of its abdominal segments the mayfly nymph has a pair of gills, each of which is equipped with a network of tiny channels much like the veins of insect wings. They’re also vibrated continuously by their own muscles to increase water flow around them thus improving gas exchange.

The mayflies are amongst the most ancient of all the insects. As juveniles, like the one in this photo, they have a pair of tracheal gills on each of their abdominal segments. Similar gills on the thorax of an ancient insect may represent the origin of the modern insect wing. In mayflies the winglets that will become the fully developed wings of the short-lived adult can clearly be seen extending from the thorax and covering the front part of the abdomen. This mayfly nymph is beautifully adapted for a life in fast flowing streams. Its hydrodynamic shape and strong legs keep a tenacious grip on slippery stones in the powerful current (Ross Piper).

It’s not hard to imagine the nymph of an ancient aquatic insect breaching the surface of a forest pool on the cusp of becoming an adult. As it shed its skin to begin its fleeting life as a terrestrial animal a mutation meant that the gills on each side of its thorax were retained. These ‘winglets’ let it scoot around a little better than others of its kind; even making short glides possible. With the passage of time and countless generations, evolution honed these gills into perfect wings that made true flight possible for the first time.

Would the above fly fish ok? Sure it would. A size 14 fly, even with tier’s imperfections, would fish just fine. But, I do possess a little bit of interest in some uniformity and appearance.

Esta mosca fue creada por el estadounidense Ken Morrish.  Como lo indica su nombre esta mosca es imitadora de las ninfas de mosca de mayo (mayflies) pero también puede funcionar como una mosca atractora.  Puede atarse en distintos colores de cuerpo para cubrir los distintos colores que puedan tener las ninfas naturales en su río o lago.  La primera vez que ví una de estas moscas fue con Rodolfo Quiros en Coyhaique y me pareció una excelente mosca.  Es una de mis moscas favoritas y las ato normalmente en tamaños del 12 al 18 para los ríos en los alrededores de Valdivia.  No existe mucha información de esta mosca en Internet por lo que me traté de acercar lo más posible a su receta y pasos de atado.  Hay 4 colores en las que se normalmente se atan: café claro (hare’s ear), oliva, pavo real y café oxidado (rust).  A continuación está la receta para la versión en café claro.

Receta

Anzuelo: ninfa 1xl (ej.Tiemco 3761) o 2xl (ej. Mustad 3906B) tamaños 8 al 20

Hilo: café oscuro

Cabeza: beadhead color nickel negro

Peso: alambre de plomo

Ribete: alambre de cobre fino

Cola: pluma de cola de faisán

Cuerpo y Tórax: dubbing de liebre color claro (light hare’s ear)

Espalda y Cubre Alas: Krystal Flash negro

Patas: Krystal Flash negro

Cabeza: dubbing de conejo color café oscuro (ej. Hareline Dubbing Chocolate Brown #24)

Pasos de Atado

1. Insertar el bead head en el anzuelo. Enrollar alrededor de 10 vueltas de alambre de plomo y deslizarla en dirección al ojo del anzuelo quedando una parte dentro del bead head.  Fijar el plomo con hilo.

2. Atar 3 fibras de pluma de faisán donde empieza la curva del anzuelo.  Dejar una fibra central y las otras dos en dirección oblicua, una para cada lado.  El largo de la cola debe ser aproximadamente el largo del cuerpo del anzuelo.

3. Atar unas 6 a 10 fibras de Krystal Flash (a menor tamaño de mosca menos fibras) y por encima de eso el alambre de cobre.

4. Aplicar el dubbing sobre el hilo y formar el cuerpo.  El dubbing debiera terminar más o menos en la mitad del cuerpo del anzuelo y debe tener una forma ligeramente cónica.

5. Doblar el montón de Krystal Flash por sobre el cuerpo hacia adelante y enrollar 4 a 5 vueltas el alambre de cobre sobre el cuerpo, fijando el krystal flash sobre la espalda.  Al llegar donde termina el dubbing amarrar el alambre de cobre y cortar el excendente, dejándo las fibras de Krystal Flash donde están.

6. Atar una fibra nueva de Krystal Flash perpendicular al cuerpo del anzuelo para las patas traseras.  Agregar un tórax de dubbing que sea ligeramente más grande que el grosor del cuerpo y de forma más redonda. Doblar el Krystal Flash de la espalda sobre el tórax.  Atarlo y cortar el excedente.  Deje un espacio antes del beadhead.

7. Atar una fibra de Krystal Flash a cada lado del anzuelo de manera paralela al cuerpo del anzuelo.  Agregar un poco de dubbing café oscuro para tapar el hilo y hacer el nudo final de la mosca.

8.  Recortar las patas para que queden como el la fotografía a continuación.

Pesca

Podemos usarla cuando no hayan eclosiones en las aguas como una mosca atractora o de búsqueda o bien como imitadora de alguna ninfa de mayfly en particular.  En ríos pequeños y medianos el propio peso de la mosca debería ser suficiente para llegar a la profundidad adecuada donde esten comiendo las truchas, pero si fuese necesario para las aguas más profundas se podría agregar una pequeña plomada (tipo split shot) a 30cm o más arriba en el leader.  También se puede usar un nudo como el non slip mono loop (ver video) para darle mayor movilidad a la mosca con las distintas corrientes bajo el agua.  Lo ideal es pescarlo con una deriva natural con respecto a la corriente, al igual que una ninfa en estado natural siendo llevada por la corriente.  Una sugerencia que surge de mi experiencia con esta mosca es tener cuidado en el momento de remover la mosca con pinzas o alicate de la boca del pescado es que a veces se dañan o rompen las patitas de Krystal Flash.

GHPTCDC Nymph

A nice looking mayfly emerger-nymph pattern.  A good beginner’s pattern and of course you could buy it via MF&PD Flies. If you should decide to tie it, the CDC hackle wraps should not be over done or dressed with any floatant.

Gold bead for head, black tying thread, hackle fiber tail, mylar, gold or silver ribbing, pheasant tail fibers wrapped for the body. A CDC plume tied in at tip and wrapped forward…tied off behind bead. Size hook could vary from a size 10 to a size 14 (you could go smaller by realistically the size of the CDC plume would dictate hook size because you do not want the individual CDC fibers to extend back beyond the bend of the hook. Check out the nice patterns at the Slovak site.

I have a mental block re certain patterns and the two that I am prejudice against are two of the simplest to tie and both are truly highly effective: Hare’s Ear Nymph and Pheasant Tail Nymph. There is no logical explanation…kind of like being against blonds with big gazaba’s… I mean why? Yet despite myself I fish this pattern and the PTN. It frigging works….they work! Re the tinsel. That is what the standard pattern calls for. I use it..yet I have never liked working with tinsel and would prefer gold wire. The reason is evident by my wraps..uneven and inconsistent. You decide.  The thorax can be much less spikey and comprised of dubbing and less guard hairs. I like it spikey…a road trip without shaving.     

Hippy Hare's Ear by G. Muncy

This is your standard pheasant tail, mine was brought to me by a German short hair. This is a much shorter feather from the butt section of the bird and I chose it because of the difference between the fibers on either side of the center. On the right the fibers are stiffer and are the traditional fibers I’ve seen used for tail’s, legs and bodies. These fibers are not as stiff as hackle fibers obviously but are stiffer than the counterparts on the other side. I used the left side for a soft-hackle leg effect by using a large amount of fibers to create my wingcase and legs. I felt this would make the legs move a bit more, and I would get to use the side that I think most tiers don’t utilize. 

I use 5-10 Fibers from the stiffer side to make the tail and to form the main body of a Pheasant tail nymph. This is a natural tail feather and hasn’t been dyed, I do have some darker feathers that help make different shades possible. 

The softer fibers are more difficult to prepare for the legs/wingcase due to the nature of the softness and the fact that to get the effect I wanted and to have a substantial wingcase I needed almost 3/4in section from the left side. To get the feather fibers to line up grasp them half way to the quill and stand them all at 90 degrees to the quill, this should even the fiber tips.

This produced several of the following looking PT’s. 

I saw this hook shape and immediately thought of that shape with the curved body and the tail flailing high. This is a Mustad 37160 #20 and I really like the shape, it’s a heavier hook and well suited for nymphs. The only issue I can see with the hook itself is that the shape may hamper hooking a fishes lip which is why I used a hemostat to bend the shank 10 degrees to offset the point from the shank to increase the odds of hooking a fish.  I should also note that even though this is a size 20 is makes a size 18 or 16. 

I’m experimenting with different materials. The one above is a more “natural” looking Pheasant Tail while the one below is more of a flash pattern using a bit of Peacock Ice Dub.  I like the look of this pattern, I also experimented with how to best keep the tail pointing the direction I wanted. I think the best method was wrapping thread behind the tail until it could not lay down anymore. I’m hoping that with a bit of a twitch especially during a hatch and in slower water that the different form on this fly will set it apart from other PT’s.