Willow Flies??

I operate the port of Little Rock (under the 440 bridge). There was a hatch of flies last night and the bream are going crazy by the dock waiting for them to fall into the water. I don't know what these flies are really. They look like what we called mosquito hawks in Texas (yes; I'm from Texas. Don't mess with it).
Any way...I catch these flies and drop them into the water and watch hand size bream come up after them. I bet a cricket would do the same. If you come after them, fish right up against the cells. I am not placing any barges there until next week. I plan on bringing my boat tommorow and trying them out after work.
DP

Could be a hatch of Mayflies. Are they long with wings and colored tannish yellow. Do they have soft bodies? Mayflies hang on the willows along the water and bream love them.
What we call Mosquito Hawks look like gaint Mosquitos . They are half legs and not much body.
I would fish artifical flies or use the Mayflies for bait. Carry a pole and hit Willows to knock down flies. This should set off a feeding frenzy.:D
Good Luck.

P.S. Have you ever catfished below where they load the grain barges on the river ?

We don't load much grain at the port of Little Rock any more. I think my competiton up the river still does some. Rice should be moving in the next few weeks.
A few years ago we had some sweepings of rice that had to be "disposed of". I sunk it all in one bag (about 200lbs) at the end of the dock. We conveniently had a work barge in place to fish off of. I invited customers to come and fill their baskets. We caught many species. But, mainly catfish. somehow they had broken the bag and were gorged on the rice. It was spewing out of them from both ends. Those were the good old days. Insurance gurus frowns on such activity now.
I got emails yesterday from someone with "nirodfisherman" in his address. He was promoting a new forum in Arkansas for outdoorsmen. Do you or anybody else know anything about this?

DRPEPPER that is a small outdoor forum . It's mostly Arkansas people and I logged on it.
We bait out holes in places with sweet feet and works great for catfish. I've seem crappie bite better over baited brushpiles. I figure those catfish eat any grain and it draws minnows for the crappie.
Le us know how the bream do on the river. I'm thinking of going to Conway soon. Only fishing we had luck with lately is bass in small rivers.:D

Those are surely mayflies....I have seen (during the breeding season for them) where there are literly millions of these things swarming Kaw Lake in Oklahoma...(I'm from Oklahoma by the way, Boomer Sooner!) not sure if you are into this type thing, but if you can find a good spot where carp feed, it's a BLAST to take light tackle or even a canepole and catch those HUGE carp on these little mayflied, just almost like fly fishing.....anyways.....hope you have good luck, and take a cricket can, every once in a while you can see them clumped up in the hundreds, they are mating....just grab a clump and stuff them in that cricket can.....NICE!

I bought a pontoon boat this summer. That put a dent in my fishing. Too hot any way. I didn't wet a hook during this hatch. But, if my memory is correct, I think this is the second hatch this year.
Minnow Man, you are correct. They were everywhere. I had to cover my mouth when I was hollering at people on the dock. I am looking forward to the next hatch so I can try Nimrod's trick and beat on a willow tree.
DP

I am no EXPERT on these mayflies but I have to say...I can tell you something really funny I saw....it was at the marina on Kaw Lake in Oklahoma, this elderly man was in his wheel chair and his grandaughter was swarmed by a clump of them and she was "wigging" out really bad. He wheeled his chair real fast trying to save her but he couldn't stop from the moist dock, it knocked her in the water....=) she was fine, hair mangle and full of dead mayflies, hahaha! One trick is to get a treble hook, and get some doughballs and mush up a bunch of those mayflies in those doughballs, it works like a stink bait if you like flathead catfish...and no where to find them, they LOVE it!

This is why I only fish with a flyrod (and flies) for panfish! It's a mayfly of somekind more than likely. Flyrod Man