The mayfly hatch is on! by Brad Wiegmann

I don’t know what mayflies taste like, but I’m thinking it’s like M&M’s and crappie just love to eat them. In fact at times crappie anglers will often change to mayfly shaped soft plastic lures or hair jigs to catch them when the mayflies are hatching. Typically the mayfly will hatch not in May, but in June and July creating a unique opportunity for anglers to fish mayfly patterns when crappie fishing.


Normally the lifecycle of a mayfly revolves around slow moving rivers, ponds or lakes. The hatch happens on calm nights when thousands of these insects burrow from the bottom structure as larva and begin to swim upwards to the surface where they surface a winged adult insect. Adult mayflies mate while in flight with the male staying above the surface of the river or lake while the female mayfly lands on the river or lakes surface dropping her eggs than dies and floats to the surface until eaten by a crappie, other gamefish or predators. These eggs hatch into nymphs that will burrow on the bottom structure to repeat the cycle every two years.


Gamefish have plenty of opportunities to eat mayflies during the hatch. Some will dig down in the burrows of mud to feast on them while other gamefish will wait until the adult nymphs start swimming to the surface. Other gamefish will wait and eat them off the surface of the water as they float.




Bobby Garland Pro Payton Usrey from Springdale, Arkansas and Beaver Lake crappie guide knows when the mayfly hatch is on its going to be a good bite. “It’s normally summertime and the crappie have spawned and migrated out to deeper habitat for the summer,” Usrey continued, “I like to fish pole timber next to a deep channel in the main lake area around 30 feet deep, but I will be catching most in 15- to 20-foot deep. It’s a crazy time because recreational boaters and jet skis will be out going back and forth with music playing loudly and the crappie will still bite on the standing timber.”


Usrey is using his livescope to vertically jig his lure to the crappie using two different setups. The first is the B’n’M Poles 6-foot sharp shooter spinning rod and a spinning reel that has 6 pound test Berkley low vis green line rigged with a 1/16-ounce round ball head jig rigged with a Bobby Garland Mayfly lures. The second is a 14-foot B’n’M Poles diamond series jig pole again with the small 1/16-ounce round ball head jig rigged with a Bobby Garland Mayfly lure, but also a 1/8-ounce pegged pencil weight which helps him get the lure down faster to where the crappie are located.


“One of the ways to identify the mayfly bite is by the mouth of the crappie. Just inside their mouths will be red from eating mayflies,” Usrey continued, “I think that’s because of the hard shell of the mayfly. It also makes the Bobby Garland mayfly lure perfect for catching them. It has the insect profile that really looks like a mayfly plus these lures come in a unique package with natural oil scent to get crappie to bite them better, but if they are just nosing the lure I will cover them with Bobby Garland Slab Jam or another scent to get them to bite.”


Catching the crappie during this time can be fast and furious, but can slow down to a crawl. Most of the time it’s just a matter of getting a lure to the crappie suspended next to the submerged pole timber, however, if the bite slows up and the crappie won’t chase the lure he will use lighter line and just reel the lure up slowly to get a reaction strike. “Sometimes 2 or 3 crappie will follow it until one just can’t stand it and breaks away from the pack and bites the lure,” said Usrey.


When fishing during the mayfly hatch Usrey will do a couple things to keep getting bites and catching crappie. One is to add scent to the lure the other is to change the color of jig head or bait color pattern. “My favorite Bobby Garland Mayfly color pattern would be either green lantern or Mayfly, but I will keep changing until I get a bite some days.”