Time to get out "the books" - To quote Encyclopedia Britannica, "Any member of
the order Ephemeroptera, comprising the group of insects known as mayflies.
Other common names for the winged stages are shadfly, dayfly, fishfly, and
drake." I have to tell you, those "common names" are a lot easier to spell,
not to mention, pronounce! Anyway, we had a hatch here last week, unlike
anything I've seen in years. The air was full of them, the river was full of
them, the yard was full of them, the streets were full of them and the fish
were full of them too!
I was driving into town when I noticed the first one, cream colored with a
split tail, wings held high, holding on for dear life to my windshield. Then,
as I rounded a curve in the road and crossed a bridge over a small creek my
windshield got splattered with the bodies of a whole lot more! It was like I
hit a cloud of them. The first thing that went through my mind was that of
being happy to be inside a vehicle and not on the motorcycle that was coming
from the opposite direction at 55mph! I doubt he was still smiling when he
got to the far side of the bridge! I finished my business in town as quickly
as I could and headed back home. As I neared the small bridge over the creek
I slowed down, the entire road was slick with the bodies of "vehicularly
challenged" mayflies. I parked the truck, grabbed my gear and headed for the
river. I wasn't worried too much about my casting shoulder that's still on
the mend, the entire river was alive with emerging mayflies and fish gorging
on them. I knew the fish were in a feeding frenzy and all I had to do was
dapple something cream colored on the top of the water for a bit and reel it
in.
It didn't take long, actually less than two minutes, to be rewarded for my
lack of effort. I had a nice small mouth on and it was playing like it was
surprised one of those little bugs had bit back! It took me a few minutes to
convince him to give up and come to the dock where I netted him. What
surprised me was that he was so full of the mayflies that they were actually
falling out of his anus! He was crammed full, gill to, well, the other end,
and still feeding! I caught three more and released them and was laughing so
loud my wife called down on the radio to find out what was going on. I told
her and within minutes saw her, fly rod in hand, on her way down. She was
laughing so hard at the number of flies that had landed on me while I was
concentrating on fishing she could hardly tie on her fly! Soon both of us
were busy catching, netting, and releasing bass, crappies, blue gills, a small
northern, and a misguided, 4lb channel cat that took about ten minutes to play
and finally broke the line right at the dock.
We fished for about two hours, my arms and shoulder ached from playing fish,
but it was one of those 'good hurts'! Rachelle was reeling in another small
mouth bass when lightening streaked across the sky over head. We both
immediately ducked down on the dock as the resounding thunderclap echoed in
our ears. Wow, that was close! I turned around and saw a huge row of storm
clouds headed our way. Rachelle looked wide-eyed at me and mumbled something
like, "Where the heck did that come from?" About then, another streak of
lightening and thunderclap shot over head. No words were even spoken, we both
grabbed gear, kept our lightening rods, commonly known as fly rods low to the
ground, and headed for the house.
It's rained now for three days, nine and a half inches to be exact. The river
is now running through the front yard instead of between its banks. It's not
close enough to threaten the house like it did last year, but it's still a
discomforting feeling having it so close again. The mayflies seem to have
disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Even the "spent" ones that had
littered the yards and streets have been washed away. We're still talking
about the fun we had while it lasted though. Wow, what a field day to
remember! My shoulder is still sore but I don't seem to mind. I know it'll
heal and I also know that the mayflies, or ephemeroteras as they're uncommonly
known, will be back and hatch another time. Hopefully it'll be soon!
~ Randy Fratzke
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