Midge/Mayfly report?

[Lynn M]

Thinking of heading to Erie tomorrow, but don't really want to be there when the worst of the midge hatch happens. A couple years ago I hit it on a day when the midges were like the plague and had to do a thorough cleaning/shampooing of the boat. I was thinking the tiny midges show up before the mayflies, but does anyone have a current report? Thanks so much!

[skinny5382]

This probably won't be a lot of help, but I'll tell ya what I know. I fished out of Avon Point "Miller Road" 5/10 and 5/11 and the bugs weren't too bad.

[Nauti]

No bugs yet around the islands or reefs!

[Lynn M]

Thanks guys! That gives me some peace of mind. I'll report on how my day went when I get back. Tight lines and God Bless!

[Lynn M]

Well I made it out on Thursday the 15th and there were very few bugs. It was an interesting day for me. I didn't catch any walleye on cranks, they all came on crawler harnesses. The best harness was a gold butterfly style. Also I think all of them came in the top 12 feet of the water column, I tried going deeper, but no dice. Speed was 1.3 to 1.6 while pulling harnesses. At one point I had switched to just cranks and sped up to 2.1 but no takers. Ended up fishing most of the day in order to get my limit. I started on the NW corner of Kelley's in 40 fow and trolled east towards Middle Bass. Water was very clean, and probably too clean for the cranks to work well. I then took a run in the "cup" on the north side of Kelley's and then went south a bit and trolled directly west from Kelley's. The water was a bit more stained between South Bass and Kelley's. I still didn't have my limit by 2pm so I made the trek a few miles east of Kelley's where I saw a few other boats and finished out the day there. The six I kept were all 20"-23". It was a beautiful day on the water!

[gb1234]

Good data. Thanks!