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3. Northern Minnesota Hex.

Vermillion Lake. 7/7/13.
Thousands of shucks and spent spinners on the water every morning.
A few of these on the boat windshield around 4:30 am

Nice pics Tony. What camera were you using?

Do any fishing? A nice sized Robert's Drake sure would come in handy there, me thinks...

Spence

Hi you two,

Hope your Summers are going well. The Pirates are doing great, Tony! We won't talk about the Giants...:(

As for the mayfly ID - It's another color variation of H. bilineata, the same species as the one Eric recently posted. The two rows of pale kidney shaped marks along the dorsum of the abdomen are a way to tell them from limbata. The females aren't keyed, but in this genus they thankfully bear similar markings to the males.

Best,

Kurt

Do muskies eat spinners? ;)

Eric...Where's the fishing report? You got to show the gang here at TroutNut how to fish for Stripers. Or how I spent my summer vacation. :)

BTW Muskies would be right up your alley...Big, mean, fish with an attitude...They sneak up behind fish that are eating Hex, when they aren't eating baby ducks. :)

Spence

The modern depth finders are amazing. Around 7pm, the screen is blank except for the occasional arc of bait fish and walleyes on the bottom.
Around 8, there is an ascending blur on the screen that eventually elevates to the surface. The depth finder actually picks up the hatch.
And then there is a progressive increase in the number of arcs near the surface. Then the big arcs show up just below. Now it's suspended muskies over open water, perfect to throw 10 inch streamers or giant lures.
My friends wanted to see one caught on a fly, and I didn't disappoint them, although my sole fly rod Muskie was the smallest of the trip, I had several giants follow, only to disappear on the figure 8. I did nail a few beasts on conventional tackle but only the one small one. Big Northerns on the other hand...
The amount of insect activity is amazing. Literally hundreds of thousands of hex nymphs rising together rivals any trico hatch.

Vermillion has HUGE musky. Some of the biggest in the state as I understand. I have a bachelors party this weekend up near Hayward WI. It's an island campsite on a prime body of musky water. Needless to say, I'm excited.

I didn't think it was trout related.

...and Muskie are?! Trips to alpine meadows are? Spence and Tony rambling about hockey during the playoffs are? Some guy floating around in a kayak hassling Bluegill are? :)

Post some damn pics!

I've seen them already, but they are nice...You don't have to post the pics of your son spanking your butt, I understand that, but your fish were respectable. ;)

Spence

Their swarms are visible from space! Once spent a weekend at a "resort facility" not far from Corpus Christi, TX. It was on a big lake that had some areas along the shore a foot deep with them. All the streets were covered with a greasy sludge and the 100 degree temps didn't help. The odor was horrible...:(

Kurt...On the east-side here along the Detroit River, Lake St Clair, we get them on the road under street lights and folks slide through intersections on them...When I was in college and driving a newspaper truck, I would drop bundles out at a bank, in the middle of night, near the water near Mt Clemens. It was nearly impossible not to drive over them, or drop bundles on them...Yuck! :)

Spence

Tony, any possibility of fishing that Hex hatch on that lake? From what I've heard it can be hard to pinpoint hatch locations on large open bodies of water so it's quite a challenge to hit this hatch on stillwaters of any size. They come out of Tawas Bay at this time of year too, as well as some of our inland lakes. Actually, about 15 years ago I got to fish a hatch over a bunch of sunfish beds! Crazily enough I had nothing closer than #10 Female Adams but they tore it up along with a few largemouth & crappie...Also, there is a hatch going on in the vicinity of Drummond Island right now (most likely Potaganissing Bay) which is getting fished by people in boats with I think waxworms on light tackle for cisco or lake herring. (I have inquired about flyfishing this hatch for these fish, and the person I spoke to said that the boats crowd in too close together to permit this...too bad!!)

Anyway, just curious to know if you or anyone else has been able to catch this hatch on a lake situation such as this with a flyrod. Oh, I did get an 18" smallie on a Hex about two years ago...but on a section of Cooke Pond that is more like a river than a lake (e.g., it has appreciable current).

Jonathon

P.S. A nymph imitation as they ascend (very slow hand-twist retrieve), a dun when they reach the surface? Spinners the next night, or do they hatch every night?

P.S. Spence, when I'm floating around in a kayak I'm generally harassing perch...get your panfish straight Mister! (Besides I remember you drooling over those photos...)

Not to mention, the last two kayak outttings resulted in nothing but brookies, topping out at only 10" but most eager to hit just about anything now that they're packed into the feeder creek where the cold water is...and minimal deer flies so far too! Always an advantage...

Jonathon

Jonathon,

After being a vegetarian for forty-plus years, I'm incapable of "drooling" over anything, as an old Buddhist once said, that once had a face. ;)

Spence

Yes, but not for anything with an adipose fin.
During my seven year sentence to troutless Cleveland, a NorCal fellow intern and I spent many summer nights in float tubes backtrolling the first break line in Lake Erie for walleyes. (Kurt, it was his idea- crazy Californian).
We used size 2 and 4 wolly buggers and were quite successful, but nothing ever over 5 pounds. We also used my 16' Lund to safely get out a little further and drifted 6" minnow patterns on full sinking lines for the bigger fish. Somewhere I have kodachromes of us holding 7-9 pounders in the pitch black complete with scrubs on and beepers visible! I'll try and find those.
I also started to fly fish for Muskies back then(mid'90s) when I realized that the main forage for them was a 4" shad. Deadly during the spring spawn when the muskies head to the shallows to hunt shad schools around emerging milfoil.

Were you guys actually on-call?! Tony. You have this fishing bug bad! I'm only half insane compared to you brother...Wow! I doubt there were any other anglers out there with you, but what a sight! Two interns in scrubs hooting it up and smacking big fish.

Eric. Repepi's a fishing god! Well maybe a fishing demon. :) Who cares! Size 2 Buggers to size 26 midges on Spring Creek. He's got it covered and he won't point the truck towards home until he has out fished us. :)

Spence

"...my seven year sentence to troutless Cleveland..."

I don't think Cleveland is technically "troutless" anymore, at least during steelhead season so I'm told...aren't they a trout after all? Semantics, I suppose, since they're classified with the Pacific salmon group now...

There is supposed to be a lake in the Rifle River Recreation Area that is both stocked with trout (browns at least and maybe also rainbows) that also has a Hex hatch. Haven't had a chance to try that one yet...and [REDACTED] Pond doesn't have a Hex hatch that I know of, at least I've been out there past 10 p.m. a few times and haven't seen any. However, the bottom of that pond is pretty silty, good Hex habitat, and my local bait shop sells "wigglers' as the nymphs are known around here...I have considered "stocking" this pond with Hex to see if they take, and if they did, I bet the brookies out there would REALLY get big! They get pretty big as it is, I saw one on the last trip I almost mistook for a small pike!

Jonathon

P.S. Spence, I stand corrected, it was your wife that was drooling over my spring perch score...

Now that is definitely the case...I have to screw up my karma every few years and bring her some through the ice or she may look for another provider.

Spence

Spence, you have to realize that this was 20 years ago...

Reminds me of the scene in Caddyshack when the Doctor electrocutes himself by grabbing the wet beeper! Hah! Great photos!