Mayfly Hatch...

[JimC]

I just returned from our annual week's vacation, fishing mostly the North West Hardwoods, Pickerel Rock area of Lake Nipissing. In many places, the water was thick with shadfly larvae; and there were lots of adults on the outside of our cottage.

 

We fished hard from Sat (May 29th) thru yesterday (Fri June 4th) ... two boats, five fisherman, and we didn't see our first Walleye till Wed. ... but what a beautiful 11 inch specimen she was! we got blanked on Thursday, then things seemed to start picking up yesterday, with a 13in, 15in, and one 20in beauty that would have made enough for at least a decent dinner on our last night of vacation. Missed at least two other solid Walleye hits, one right at the boat (I can still see that darn white tipped tail, as she spit the hook).

 

... BUT, despite being tempted to 'cheat' on that 20inch'er, especially, after seeing gill nets spread wide in one of our favourite spots around Umbrella Is., our buddies in the 2nd boat returned our ONE and only 'slot' Walleye for the week, to swim another day ... probably right into that damn gill net we saw between the two orange-red marker buoys. We were hoping for one more 15in 'keeper' but it wasn't to be. So the five of us got a 'taste' but not a very filling one.

 

For the record, we were using that same chartreuse go-getter, mentioned earlier in this thread among some pictures that I am very envious of. ;-) We used gold ones too, bottom bounced with jigs when there was a drift, had some nice lively worms to tempt those Walleye, but I digress ... this thread is about 'Mayflys on Nipissing' and we saw plenty. I was born in North Bay, living in S.Ont. now, so I know 'plenty of shads' when I see them. I also know that the July 1st weekend is when the big hatch historically happens ... you didn't need a calender to tell what the date was over many years in The Bay. The big heat of the last full week of May, shot the temps up and the little bug*ers came early (unlucky for us).

 

oh, we did get plenty of Pike action (and the usual sheephead, mudcats, a few bass (large, small, silver ... no rock), surprisingly only 'a few' Perch, and we had the best weather we've seen in 15 years going to the same place this time of year. Sure would have been nice to latch onto some nice 'eyes' but it wasn't to be ... I guess, we'll have to wait till next year.

[crosshairs]

The orange floats you are refering to were probably from the cache bay pike derby that happened recently. They were run from the sturgeon river along the south side of pickerel rock. I also seen some around the bald rocks area.

 

At the depths around that area the floats from the nets would be all across the top. The nets generally are 6 feet wide, and are made to be suspended not sit on the bottom. Odds are there were no nets there. The only commercial fishing done is by Nipissing first nation, who have a their own management plan, biologist, enforcement, and assessment teams.

 

If I can fiqure out how to put pictures on here, I\ll post the pictures of the sturgeon we tagged last week in the sturgeon river. We inserted radio tags into 12 mature sturgeon, and will be tracking them for the next 5-6 years to establish patterns and areas of the lake they use. We have also pit tagged 300 plus juvenile sturgeon in the past couple years.

 

Anyhow I'm off topic, but good luck fishing to all.

[canadadude]

An old nippising favorite is a yellow sally fly trolled or drifted behind a small spinner or june bug tipped with a piece of worm,use to be goto bait during the shadfly hatch.

[JimC]

crosshairs ... thanks for clarifying the 'orange floats' (are they gill nets) question. Now that I think about it, we heard they had expanded the area for the Pike Derby due to extreme low water this year, so it all makes sense now.

 

Also, since only the very occasional Walleye was being caught in the Pickerel Rock over to Hardwoods and beyond, it wouldn't make sense for the First Nations to waste their netting time in those areas. It seemed to us that Walleye in any numbers had long since left the shallow waters for their summer habitat (wherever that may be) by the time we got there (May 29th).

 

Cool comments regarding the Sturgeon ... I hope you start a new thread about that and post pictures. Appears to be lots of folks willing to help with the technical aspects of posting pictures if you need it (I haven't tried it myself, being a relatively new poster).

[JimC]

An old nippising favorite is a yellow sally fly trolled or drifted behind a small spinner or june bug tipped with a piece of worm,use to be goto bait during the shadfly hatch.

 

I trolled a red and white one with a dewey for a couple of hours, no hits, but maybe should have given it more time in the water during our week on NW Nipissing. Since Walleye are usually right on the bottom, I had sufficient weight to get it down there, but is it possible during the 'shad hatch' Walleye feed while suspended or even surface-feed at times?

My buddy wasn't convinced the Walleye even feed on shads? I dunno, do they? ... if I had caught one, I guess I could have checked the stomach?

[Gerritt]

photobucket is easy to post pictures to our site..

 

 

create a photobucket account by going to www.photobucket.com

 

log into you're photobucket account.

Upload the images you wish to share with OFC

once you have uploaded you're images you will see the thumbnails of the images you have uploaded and want to share.

Hold you're mouse cursor over the thumbnail, a little drop down menu will appear showing you four options.

Choose IMG CODE, highlight it, and right click copy.

You can then paste the copied IMG Tag directly into you're thread here on OFC, without the need to do anything further.

 

Alternatively,

 

above each thumbnail you will see "edit" "move" "share" delete"

Click on "share" and a window will open

choose the third tab "get link code"

you will see a variety of options, choose "IMG for bulletin boards & forums"

Highlight the choice you want to have appear in your thread, right click, copy.

and paste into you're thread here on OFC.

again no need to do anything further on the OFC side of things.. just paste the tag.

 

 

Hopes this helps

 

 

G

[canadadude]

I trolled a red and white one with a dewey for a couple of hours, no hits, but maybe should have given it more time in the water during our week on NW Nipissing. Since Walleye are usually right on the bottom, I had sufficient weight to get it down there, but is it possible during the 'shad hatch' Walleye feed while suspended or even surface-feed at times?

My buddy wasn't convinced the Walleye even feed on shads? I dunno, do they? ... if I had caught one, I guess I could have checked the stomach?

I prefer the nickle ones...I drop about a 6"-8" lead off the back with a couple of ruby beads then a yellow sally or just a long shank streamer hook baited up with dewey.If I'm using the fly I just tip it a small piece of worm.If trolling isn't working,try drifting,lots of times I've trolled for few hours with nothing then drifted the same area an bingo lots of walleye,the samething works in reverse none drifting start trolling