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Steeldrifter

hex flies

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I know a few members i have talked with have never had the chance to see the hex hatch that we here in MI are so lucky to have. The hex is the largest mayfly in N.America and brings the largest trout to the surface in the dead of the night.

 

Heres a link to some hex info....its not very big but gives a few pics and a little info that might be helpful.

 

http://www.flyfishusa.com/flies/the-hex-hatch-2.html

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Here's a thought for a pattern. Two years ago we had a clave up on the Grand River in Ontario. One of the attendees was from MI and we got talking about the Hex hatch and how to tie up some patterns. What I ended up doing was tying a couple for him, a dun and a spinner out of foam. Did an extended body with a segmented tail section, and used two foam circles for the body along with a bit of dubbing and some ultra hair for the wings. Got an e-mail from him later in the summer. The spinner worked well, but the dun with the ultra hair wing was a bit top heavy and kept tilting over and had few takers.

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if i'm fishin at night in an area i'm not too familiar with, i use the plainest jane hex fly that I can pump out really quickly... made out of 100% deer hair..... the fish still take it, floats like a cork, and I'm not gonna go insane when i lose one to a tree, bush, brush, bank, rock, or anything else i have a tendency of aiming for biggrin.gif.

 

But if i do know the area, i tie up one with two tone deer hair, moose mane tails, high vis figure 8d around coastal deer hair wings, orange poly and palmered grizzly hackle for wings. Takes me quite a bit longer to tie, they are more realistic, but i kinda get POed when i lose one do to unforseen obstacles.

 

steve

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I've only seen em hatch at night. oftentimes not til very late at night. They also occur in many of the lakes that have a little flow to em, and are cold enough with some silt for bottom. Lake St. Clair comes to mind, sometimes they get crazy thick covering everything. We also get quite a few in a pond that we have in the thumb of michigan, even some out of Huron. They sure are big bugs, and get quite crunchy when they dry..... its gotten so bad a few times we had to use snowshovels to get em off the porches. As many bugs are, they are attracted to light, and when using a headlamp you can look like a mayfly beacon, it is kinda comical if they are really thick and you get a guy that is kinda touchy bout bugs.

 

steve

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Yupp hex is a dead of the night deal.

 

I have seen a few as early as 9:30pm but the fish dont really start to feed untill much later in the hatch.

 

And MSU is right around the lake st.clair area if you go over there during the hatch it looks like a hitchcock movie!

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It looks like I'm gonna get some time off for my first time. Anyone have any good hex recipes? Thanks....

 

BTW, I was doing a Google search for "hex flies" and this thread was the first to pop up. Very cool. The site is growing very nicely.

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Thanks Bob, I knew you'd come up with something good when you could. What size hook is that and what is the hackle? I see the grizzly but is that yellow with it?

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Yes Pat

It's yellow and grizzly tie on a size 10 Mustad 9671 yellow thread deer hair and calf tail wing. (great night time spinner fall fly)

 

OSD.

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Steve,

 

We have this hatch in Pittsburgh. They come off the Allegheny river.

Its so funny to see the people walking down the street after the hatch.

They think they are going to get stung or eaten alive.

 

Every step you take you hear a crunch !

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