Don't let the hatch bug you By Marshall Wuensch For years, many Walleye anglers have dreaded the thought of Mayfly or Lakefly hatches. Many think that Walleyes will not feed on anything but insect larvae during these times. Some techniques have been unlocked to catching Walleyes during these hatches. The Mississippi River is notorious for large Mayfly hatches every summer. An old man once told me to use the hatch as a tool for catching Walleyes instead of fighting it and fearing it. The old man told me that all year round we try to “Match the Hatch”. What makes the Mayfly hatch any different? After thinking about this my friend and I looked in our tackle boxes. We didn't have anything that looked like a Mayfly. We picked a Mayfly carcass from the water surface and compared it to everything in the box. The only thing we could think of was a small piece of night crawler. It seemed to have about the same profile as a Mayfly. We decided to rig a 1” to 1-1/2” piece of crawler on a #6 hook and drag it across the muddy bottom where the Mayflies were hatching. Instantly the Walleyes started hitting. Not 10 minutes before, we were dragging whole crawlers through the same area without any hits. Those big 6 plus in crawlers looked nothing like the insects that were drawing the Walleyes into this little river slough. The small pieces however were about the same size and provided the profile that the Walleyes were actively seeking. Over the last few years we have refined the hatch bite to include a couple different techniques. One is the simple Mayfly rig. A Mayfly rig is basically a small single hook version of a crawler harness. Snell a single #6 hook, add about 5 small gold beads, add a small clevis with a size 0 or 00 hammered gold blade and you're in business. We tie ours to about 24 inches long. We'll drift and drag these rigs across muddy bottoms, or add weight for a cast and retrieve. Just add a small piece of night crawler for a little scent and you're good to go. Another great technique for the insect hatches is trolling flies. This technique is commonly used on the Winnebago chain to catch early to late season Walleyes. There are different variations of fly trolling for Walleyes. You can run them off a three-way swivel with only one fly or you can double them up. I've even tried running flies in front of snap weights or off bottom bouncers. Don't cringe next time you see Mayflies rising from the water, thank your lucky stars and use some of these techniques for a great day. The author, Marshall Wuensch is a Semi Professional Walleye Angler and a Wisconsin based tackle designer and distributor.  You can find Marshall 's tackle at www.walleyerigs.com or by calling his online store at 715-897-6050

715-897-6050