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3. Hex hatch on the White

What time do you expect the hex hatch this year on the White? Where is the best place to enter? I'm a Wisconsin fly fisherman who's never fished this hatch and I'm 61 - shame on me!

Hello Dean, and welcome. The following information from Mr. Troutnut himself (Jason) is an excellent primer for the “Hex Hatch” and includes the dates. Although the information is not specific to the White it is in generality.
http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/32/Mayfly-Hexagenia-limbata-Hex
I have fished the White and it certainly has its share of the silted substrate (marl) in which the nymphs habitat. I have not fished the hatch on the White but have it on good authority that if hit right it can be phenomenal. As far as access to the hot spots, good luck unless you have a close friend willing to indulge. The best I can do is recommend that you get a copy of the “Wisconsin Atlas & Gazetteer”. It contains detailed topographic maps including back roads and access points.

The Hex hatch is on numerous streams across all of Wisconsin.

If someone can predict when the Hex is going to start anywhere...I want that guy to pick my Mega Million numbers next time. :)

If you are just fishing the Hex, I suggest you try starting with a guide...It's an after dark event and fishing then is an aquired taste...Not neccesarily for everyone.

I have helped, shakened, anglers off the river in the middle of the night who were unprepared to be there.

Make sure you are comfortable with the stretch you are about to fish...Don't rush anything...Carry multiple lights with new batteries...Not the best idea to be out there alone (though this has never stopped me)...Take your phone...Be careful...Can be the most exciting fishing of the season...But be safe...Common sense, after dark, is worth its weight in gold...Oh...Bug spray :)...Some times I'm pretty much a toxic chemical dump. After dark is the only time ever I smoke a pipe because I believe the old anglers tale that bugs don't like fire...I think the "tabacco haze" (as T.S.Eliot once said) covers up the sensation that a zillion critters are sucking my blood.

The biting bugs are intense during the hatch...Any bug that bites will find you. I once was literally chased off the river when I walked in to a mating swarm of no-see-ems...I was talking to myself, swinging my hat in the air at the phantoms, and trespassed down old man Steffie's driveway at a trot...When I went to the 7-11 after I settled down and the clerk asked if I was ok...The area below my neck where my shirt was open looked like I'd been shot with a 12-gauge.

Have fun! ;)

Spence

Oh...If you get bored standing around before dark settles in, toss an Iso...The fish in my profile pic was on a Hex night before the sun was completely down...I do this everytime and can't figure it out...Don't question what works I guess!?