Are smallies affected by mayflies?

[CALVINIST]

Are they? Huh?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Sure- all fish are if you ask me... Its all a part of the food chain!.. them smallies I would be willing to bet GORGE themselves on the larve before they reach the surface.. I would be willing to bet it makes fishing quite difficult for a few days during and after the hatch!

[WxGuy]

There are some great days on the Root when I can catch a bunch of smallmouth on large nymphs dead-drifted deep through pools, and when the hatch is especially good you can catch smallmouth on dry flies. They will definitely take advantage of the food before them, and if there's healthy invertebrate life where you're fishing, they're probably eating.

With that said, it's hard to beat a good crawfish imitation for the bigger smallies no matter how many bugs...if you're fly fishing.

[Granny]

100% yes they are affected by the mayflies! Last weekend in the BWCA my wife and I caught the end of the mayfly hatch and the fishing was beyond great. The smallies were swimming along the top of the water gulping up mayflies. At any given time there were easily 50 smallies surfacing and some were right next to the canoe. In two days we caught several fish including 2-18", 1-19", 1-20", 1-21.5" & 1-21.75". My wife caught the 3 biggest fish too! Match the hatch!

Granny

[senkoskipper]

hey granny, what is BWCA ?

[ocf]

I'm assuming thats a joke but.... Boundary Waters Canoe Area (Wilderness)

[senkoskipper]

oh ok thanks