Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin

Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Stream photos

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Ephemerella mucronata Mayfly Nymph Ephemerella mucronata Mayfly Nymph

Dorsal view of a Ephemerella mucronata (Ephemerellidae) Mayfly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington

This is an interesting one. Following the keys in Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019) and Jacobus et al. (2014), it keys clearly to Ephemerella. Jacobus et al provide a key to species, but some of the characteristics are tricky to interpret without illustrations. If I didn't make any mistakes, this one keys to Ephemerella mucronata, which has not previously been reported any closer to here than Montana and Alberta. The main character seems to fit well: "Abdominal terga with prominent, paired, subparallel, spiculate ridges." Several illustrations or descriptions of this holarctic species from the US and Europe seem to match, including the body length, tarsal claws and denticles, labial palp, and gill shapes. These sources include including Richard Allen's original description of this species in North America under the now-defunct name E. moffatae in Allen RK (1977) and the figures in this description of the species in Italy.

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27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.

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Pike death

Report at a Glance

General Region	Maple rapids, mi
Dates Fished	07/09/12
Time of Day	8:00pm
Fish Caught	nada

Details and Discussion

Strmanglr

Posts: 156

Strmanglr on Jul 10, 2012July 10th, 2012, 8:29 am EDT

I know it's not a fly fishing report so much but those in Michigan might be interested to know there was a huge Pike die off this last week on the Maple R. due to the high temps. I walked the shoreline for about 60yds and counted 21 dead pike that I could see on my side of the river. Where I was at it's really wide so I couldn't see the other shoreline.

Jmd123

Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474

Jmd123 on Jul 10, 2012July 10th, 2012, 9:44 am EDT

How big were these fish? Are you sure it was temperature? Not necessarily doubting it but could it possibly have been VHS? It happened to muskies in Lake St. Clair a few years ago.

Jonathon

P.S. It's been a while since I've thrown any flies at pike, and there are supposed to be some big ones in the Au Sable River system...

No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

Roguerat

Posts: 456

Roguerat on Jul 10, 2012July 10th, 2012, 3:07 pm EDT

Same thing in SW Michigan, inland lakes have dead pike floating all over the place. Grand Rapids TV news ran a story on it, from appearances the fish were 20-25" long. They said cause was high water temps, MI DNR has not commented though.
We've got near-drought conditions in SW MI, local rivers are near- or at- record-low flow levels. Really weird weather, since 30 miles north has had rainfall of inch-an-hour or more.
I spent last week on the Big Manistee and feeder creeks, had to get off the water by 9 am due to heat...in the 90's by noon.

The Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...'

PaulRoberts

Colorado

Posts: 1776

PaulRoberts on Jul 13, 2012July 13th, 2012, 9:10 am EDT

Canadian biologists have for some time now been documenting the expansion of warmwater fisheries (particularly smallmouth bass) and the loss of certain coldwater fisheries (Cisco and mooneye in particular).

Pike, esp mature ones, are coolwater fish.