If today is an indication, we may be in for a serious onslaught of “The Hex.” It’ll be deja vu for the Elite Series anglers who were here in 2013, and a nightmare for Aaron Martens in particular.
“The Hex” is the Hexagenia limbata, the largest mayfly species in North America. Other nicknames for it are “the giant Michigan mayfly” and “the great lead-winged drake.”
Mayflies are aquatic insects, which spend most of their lives burrowed in the mud. As the nymphs emerge and come to the water surface, they enter the adult stage, go airborne, mate and die.
Mayflies are an indicator of good water quality. As the Mississippi River water quality has improved in recent years, the “Hex hatch” has become massive. Local officials have used snowplows to clear bridges of the slick coat of smushed mayflies, and the Hex hatch has shown up on weather radar as a massive cloud.
“They’re like Cheez-Its,” complained Martens in 2013, after a huge mayfly hatch affect the bite that had given him the lead heading into the final day here on June 23. “The bass are just eating Cheez-Its.”
Martens weighed only 13-15 on Day 4 and finished second to Tommy Biffle.
If the big “Hex hatch” is on the way, you’ll know it before daybreak tomorrow. Wherever there is a light source, like around local convenience stores and gas stations, mayflies will squish underfoot everywhere you go. And the bass will be eating mayflies/Cheez-Its in the Mississippi River.
