Crappie and mayflies

Along with shad, summertime mayfly hatches fill much of the diet of crappie.

Spring and summer insect hatches often leave trout stream anglers waxing poetic over finding the perfect fly to “match the hatch.” However, these swarming bugs have a very different effect on crappie and crappie anglers.

Crappie are more prone to feeding at deeper depths than sucking insects off the surface like bream, although being opportunists, crappie are attracted to minnows and other small fish that feed on these insects.

Where insect hatches like mayflies, midges and mosquitoes come into direct play in the crappie feeding cycle is when the insects are in their larval stages. To understand how and why crappie play into this cycle, you have to understand a little about aquatic insect hatches.

Mayflies and many other aquatic insects live a somewhat incomplete life cycle in that they do not undergo a land-based metamorphosis or “caterpillar” stage. An aquatic insect’s life cycle begins with the egg, which is usually laid in water.

The egg matures into a nymph, the caterpillar’s counterpart, which lives in water until it matures. The mature nymph then crawls out of the water or makes its way to the surface and sheds its outer husk to reveal wings.

In mayflies, the emergence of wings takes place in pre-adult stages while other insects might go through additional developmental stages before wings emerge.

After the wings are fully functional, mayflies swarm and begin the mating process. The adult lifespan might only last a day or two in mayflies or longer in other aquatic insects. After mating, the female mayfly deposits her eggs in water and dies shortly thereafter, joining other dead male and female mayflies in the water.

Crappie fishermen often report catching crappie with “bloody lips” during the summer. Crappie often gorge themselves on emerging and pre-emergent mayfly larvae that must also seek suitable oxygenated water to survive.

Dislodging these larvae is accomplished by sucking them off of submerged timber or actually bumping or ramming the wood with their snouts, resulting in the mouth bruising.

About Phillip Gentry 403 Articles
Phillip Gentry is a freelance outdoor writer and photographer who says that if it swims, walks, hops, flies or crawls he’s usually not too far behind.

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