Troutnut.com Fly Fishing for Trout Home
User Password
or register.
Scientific name search:

> > What is the big DEAL about the HEX?, Page 2



This topic is about the Mayfly Species Hexagenia limbata

It starts like a rise of small trout. There are dimples on the surface--fingerling trout eating midges, perhaps. But these are no fish. The water breaks and out pop the yellow sails of a giant Hexagenia dun. Then another. And another. A vortex appears in a flash below the mayfly and it vanishes with a slurp so loud it echoes off the distant bank. A square tail like a shark fin breaks the surface behind the swirl as a brown trout twice the size of your net retreats back to his deeper lair. The Hex hatch is on.

This Midwestern legend plays out every year on calm, dark, humid nights in early July. Anglers who only fly fish once a year drive hundreds of miles to play their part in the drama, while the mayflies themselves make the television news by showing up on doppler radar or calling snowplows out of dormancy to remove layers of Hexagenia (or "Hex") duns from the bridges. In the cold trout rivers of Wisconsin and Michigan, huge nocturnal brown trout whose usual menu consists of smaller brown trout become, for a week or so, prime dry fly quarry.

According to the literature, these are the second largest mayflies in the United States, behind the related Litobrancha recurvata flies. However, there are credible reports of limbata exceeding 40mm in some locales that challenge this assumption. Read more...

There are 25 more specimens...

The Discussion

RedQuill27November 15th, 2009, 3:19 pm
Wisconsin

Posts: 13
The guy who posted this thread "SPINNER" has been kicked off all of the other Wisconsin Fly fishing Forums. He doesn't like the HEX hatch because it's too hard to imitate with a Panther Martin, Mepps or Crankbait.
Fishing is like sex, when its good its great, and when its bad its still pretty good.
BombilloJuly 5th, 2016, 2:45 pm
Posts: 2If this doesn't look like some of the most fun a person could have with a fly rod I'll eat my drying patch. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px2z9P2DIsM
Page:12

Quick Reply

You have to be logged in to post on the forum. It's this easy:
Username:          Email:

Password:    Confirm Password:

I am at least 13 years old and agree to the rules.

Related Discussions

TitleRepliesLast Reply
Re: Caddis emergence
In General Discussion by Partsman
4May 27, 2019
by Wiflyfisher
Re: Caught on NWS radar
In General Discussion by Falsifly
4Jul 28, 2014
by Gus
Re: Croton River
In General Discussion by CAuletta
1Aug 18, 2011
by Troutnut
Re: For Fred's Post re: "What is the Big Deal about the Hex?"
In the Photography Board by Oldredbarn
2Sep 10, 2009
by Troutnut
Re: On 6/15 these mayflies closed a bridge in Pennsylvania - What are they?
In the Identify This! Board by KennyBruin
2Jun 17, 2015
by KennyBruin
Re: Green Drakes
In Fishing Reports by Martinlf
4Jun 11, 2017
by Jmd123
Day 2 on the Rifle - 14 trout and yellow lady's slippers
In the Photography Board by Jmd123
0
Re: Mayfly hatch in aquarium - Leptophlebiidae?
In the Identify This! Board by LowBudget
4Apr 12, 2014
by Brookyman
Re: Spring Creek ID
In the Identify This! Board by DOS
3Mar 17, 2009
by DOS
Centroptilum?
In the Mayfly Genus Anafroptilum by Entoman
0