The Mayflies have arrived!

Every year when the Mayflies hatch there’s a few weeks when they come to the lighted dock in bunches. This year is no exception. It’s fun to see the crappie take them off the surface one by one.
We caught 30-35 in about an hour on Saturday night including this magnolia. All were released to chase mayflies another night. If we’d been keeping them, probably 20 were eaters.Attachment 459279


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Congrats. That's a nice looking blacknose

Mayfly to crappie fry, WTG.

Awesome job and pretty crappie. Love those racing stripes.

I saw some the other night on the pontoon. Beautiful black nose! :biggrin

Pretty fish, I haven’t caught one in a couple years.


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Beautiful fish! Thanks for sharing

Ive only caught a hand full of those blacknose crappie. There's no mistaking them when you do catch one though. Sounds like your dock is HOT at night right now. Congrats on a fine catch.

Thanks for the report and pic, have never caught one of those crappie. Yet

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Originally Posted by STUMP HUNTER

Thanks for the report and pic, have never caught one of those crappie. Yet

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I've personally caught 3. 2 at High Rock in NC and 1 last year from this same dock. This one was caught by a friend while fishing with me. He didn't realize it was different until I got excited on his behalf... :Rofl

So please educate me on how to target them during the mayfly hatch. I've always considered that a tougher time because they are so full of may fly larvae. Are you using a jig that imitates the larvae? I know Jody at the bait shop up above you always talks about the hybrid fishing getting tough down there during the may fly hatches. I've used a jigging spoon painted brown or black to catch white perch at Murray when this is going on.

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Originally Posted by 91tiger

So please educate me on how to target them during the mayfly hatch. I've always considered that a tougher time because they are so full of may fly larvae. Are you using a jig that imitates the larvae? I know Jody at the bait shop up above you always talks about the hybrid fishing getting tough down there during the may fly hatches. I've used a jigging spoon painted brown or black to catch white perch at Murray when this is going on.

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I have an unfair advantage (a lighted dock). During the warm months of the year, there's almost always crappie coming there to feed at night. The mayflies also come to the light when they hatch and they accidentally fall into the water as they "swarm" around the light. The crappie are waiting just below the surface and when they see a mayfly on the water they pounce. While this is going on and the buffet is in full force, the crappies will bite jigs that are reeled by them while they await a mayfly or minnow that is coming to the light as well. It's the easiest time of year to put kids or inexperienced folks on some catching as a simple cast/retrieve will bring results.
My advice to you would be to find a lighted dock or two and set up away from the light so you can cast/retrieve through the light. I've found that dark body jigs (black/blue/green/purple) with chartreuse tails are the best at night for this technique.

Make sure you pay attention to what Jody tells you. He is an encyclopedia of "clarks hill" info, an excellent guide, and a great guy.

Chris

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Originally Posted by NCkenner

I have an unfair advantage (a lighted dock). During the warm months of the year, there's almost always crappie coming there to feed at night. The mayflies also come to the light when they hatch and they accidentally fall into the water as they "swarm" around the light. The crappie are waiting just below the surface and when they see a mayfly on the water they pounce. While this is going on and the buffet is in full force, the crappies will bite jigs that are reeled by them while they await a mayfly or minnow that is coming to the light as well. It's the easiest time of year to put kids or inexperienced folks on some catching as a simple cast/retrieve will bring results.
My advice to you would be to find a lighted dock or two and set up away from the light so you can cast/retrieve through the light. I've found that dark body jigs (black/blue/green/purple) with chartreuse tails are the best at night for this technique.

Make sure you pay attention to what Jody tells you. He is an encyclopedia of "clarks hill" info, an excellent guide, and a great guy.

Chris

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It stuns me that every dock owner who even remotely likes to fish doesn't have either a light just above the water or a submerged light. It's amazing how productive they are if you have good depth at your dock. I know of 20 plus dock lights on Hartwell and when I checked them a couple of weeks ago only 6 were turned on. Every one of them held fish. Blows my mind that every dock doesn't have them.

Chris, other than the deep hole in front of the fish camp what is the average depth where youre located? When I tried going behind the shoals last spring it was AWFUL SHALLOW!:yikes

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Chris, other than the deep hole in front of the fish camp what is the average depth where youre located? When I tried going behind the shoals last spring it was AWFUL SHALLOW!:yikes

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We tried going to the Shoals last year with the lake at 330.22 and most of the way up there at idle speed, we were in 1.5 to 2 feet. Now that reading was from the bottom of the transducer to the lake bottom, and we were in a deep V boat. But I will be taking my jet boat from now on.

The end of my dock is about 8 ft at full pool. The cove is around 10 ft avg depth. If you go around near the bank towards the docks across from the the campground, you can safely get there without any worries at full pool. The next cove above me (locally called the corn field) has 20ft depth in there, I've taken the canoe over there and caught some crappie in the laydowns. There's quite a few boats that go over there and my cove especially in the spring so some people are "in the know" that it's good.

As for the shoals, you just have to know where the channel is. I've the 25' Epic all the way up there on numerous occasions. Come hang out with me and i'll explain :cheers2

Chris