WILLOW FLYS

[G-MAN]

The willow flys must realy be out or have already been out at Chester Frost Park. I live a short distance from the park and I they were all over my front porch rails last night. A friend of mine said he saw them at "Nana's" which is a icecream place a couple of miles from the park. Has anyone seen them out on the water? Have they already come and gone?
emoScratch emoBigsmile

 

[ranman]

I saw 1 yesterday but we were off the water pretty early.
It really is time for them,I always take my vacation on the week of the fourth
and they are always out by then.
At the launch ramp at grasshopper creek there is a phone pole with a light on it,
last year we went night fishing and when we got back there where so many mayflies
on it it looked like it was alive really creepy!

 

[JC1]

The willow flys were out pretty good on Nickajack last weekend just above Sullivans boat ramp. Made me sorry I didn't have my fly rod! JC1

 

[polo-dog]

If you are fishing the Harrison area it is common, when the mayflies are hatching, to have a big hatch at the Harrison bluffs area on the main lake.

 

[macG]

Can someone tell me what a willow fly is, in particular? I should know, havng been in entomology since 1970, but don't! Curses.

My new bass boat: Last week we went down to BiLo supermarket in the evening. There was a pickup truck with a strange looking craft sticking out the end. Curious folks were stopping to peer at it, so I sidled on over to get me a look. At the same time the owner came out of the store. I says, "What'ch got there?" He says, "An old dingy that I am taking to the dump." I says, "Why not dump it right over there in our pickup truck."

He backed up to we, and we made the transfer. I got it home and next morning after daylight I inspected the haul. A strip dingy, ply flooring whcih had gone south. But the strip sides were in good shape. Everything else had to go.

So here it is, at my workshop, getting new thwarts , beam, transom - the works. Onlya couple of strips need replacing, and only half of each, even. So - I reckon my next bass boat to be a refurbished ten foot strip dingy. Good enough for a slough somewhere nearby, at least!

A pleasant trip to the supermarket!

MwMacG

 

[DHaun]

Great score on the new boat! I have a canoe and 2 hp honda myself and love it. I can launch it anywhere without a trailer. Only thing it takes two to get it on top of the truck...

I saw some Willow Flys today at Chester Frost, a few links to pictures below:

http://students.msj.edu/SmithJessee/art170/images/mayfly.jpg

http://www.aslo.org/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=710&size=big&papass=&sort=1&thecat=508

 

[macG]

OK, thanks a lot. That clears up "willow fly" - or "May fly," in N.E. trout fishing circles.

Yep - new boat is going to be several hours of fun and sweat! I plan to replace the old ply bottom with a strip bottom, make my own strips. Good grief, cedar strips run $2.80 a linal foot at various dealers! That's 3/4 in. by 1/4 in. by whatever. That could get pricey. But what isn't?

MwMacG

 

[macG]

Oops... cedarstrips - 2.80 per 10 feet, not one foot. Typo in my last note, but you probably figured that already.

MwMacG

 

[polo-dog]

My first boat was a ten foot john boat that was aluminum. It spent two summers on the top of my ten year old camaro. Not too sporty but very functional. I put that boat into any farm pond that I could find and many strip pits in central Illinois. May flies as we called them too were not as prevalent as here. The hatches here are huge with small numbers found throughout the summer also. I have often used the may flies for bait. They fit on a fine wire hook and catch bluegills, stripe, and crappies. I have been out on the main lake at this time of year when the surface is covered with the disguarded skins of the immature flies. From what I've heard and seen, the hatches are smaller than they once were. It's great when I can find things that others have diguarded and use them for great things. I applaude you on your boat find.

 

[macG]

Thanks. I guess mayfly hatches may be variable from year to year, but a good year will produce tons of them. I grew up not 30 feet from the banks of the Little Androscoggin R. in Maine, right beside a dam. Clouds and clouds of mayflies, dobson flies, and others. And lots of smallmouth, of which I caught a few. The first mayflies I saw here were a couple weeks ago. Right before the bass stopped biting off highway 58 (Harrison).

Speaking of which, I got a couple smallmouths off the roadside there, earlier. Not lately.

Boats - well - it's a toss up. Restoration is a piece of work, for sure. But it keeps me from other sorts of mischief, at least. I worked at Old Town canoe for awhile, let's say many years ago. Spraying gel coat, and on down the assembly line. Pretty interesting stuff.

Maybe boring to some, but I guess my favorite sport has always been rowing a boat and paddling canoes. Maine was a good spot for that, and TN also looks like one. A feller could do worse.

MwMacGn

 

[ranman]

I guess they started calling them willow flies because thats where you would find them resting waiting to mate.I became an amature entomologist when I started fly fishing about 12 years ago.I bought every book I could find on mayflies, stoneflies,
dragonflies etc. just trying to catch more fish.I have several hundred dollars worth of chicken feathers in my basement right now that I would use to make my own flies because the stuff you bought in the stores didn't look like the naturals I would find on the river! Prettty sad isn't it!

 

[macG]

I think it's sort of odd, but we always looked for the mayfly hatches, and then went to dry flies. But I don't recall ever catching a fish on an actual artificial mayfly! You may remember, the kind with little plastic wings. Good mimics for the real ones.

Bass flies - I don't know what bass fly fisherman use, but spent a couple summers tying up gawdy, really big streamer flies for bass. A couple of my sons and I used them frequently, and caught numerous largemout bass in Mississippi. I made sure they were large enough to use on a spin rig also, with small weights, but the boys are also fly fishermen - as well as spinners. It was a shot in the dark that happened to work.

I do know that large Wulff ("wolf") flies are good for bass after dark, and the bigger the better - in the heat of summer. But hardly different than a good popper, when they get that size. Still, fly fishing after dark is not my cup of tea. Ear shots, and all that.

MwMacG

 

[G-MAN]

Lots of willow flys on the lake banks around chester frost Sunday. My son caught 5 brim in a hurry, then the rain came and mama was ready to go home. He caught em on a small old rusty hook rooster tail.

 

[macG]

I hadn't thought about it, really, but maybe the fish grab the mayfly as they are on the surface and ready to hatch, or in the process - instead of after, when the wings are out and spread. At that point they leave the water anyway... there's probably a well known answer to that... and I dont have it.

MwMacG

 

[ranman]

Don't laugh I shouldn't know this, but as they are coming up through the water column they are called emergers and thats when alot of them do meet there maker.
when they get to the surface they have to crawl out of there nymphal sp? shucks
and wait till there wings harden before they can fly. That is when you see the sunfish
feeding on them the most but for every one you see feeding on the surface there are probably dozens under the surface feeding on emergers. The shucks are the empty shells you see floating all over the surface.Poor guys live on the bottom of the lake in the mud their whole life then for one or two days they get to fly around and breed like crazy and then they die.Just as their life is looking up it's all over with!

 

[ranman]

One of the things that happens,( I've seen this trout fishing alot) when you have a "blanket" hatch of flies on the water there are so many naturals that the fish either
never see your fly or thay are really focused on what they want like the ones that are the most vulnerable or the ones with the biggest wings etc. They tend to get realy picky.So when you throw a popper or something like that you are getting there
attention with it more so than with a natural imitation.My $.02

 

[macG]

I'll buy that. Sometimes when the pond "boils" with trout, during one of those hatches, you may as well stop throwing. They never see your fly! I've fished some ponds when a boil was on, and never taken a trout. Not even a nibble. Frustrating.

Crappie? I bet you're right about throwing the popper at that time... . Something just a little more noticeable. Things to try!

Interesting. Thanks for the insights.

MwMacG