By Nick Simonson

I’ve always been fascinated by the hatching of insects throughout the summer season, and it amazes me how varied it is in different locations.  Under the humming lights of Brothers Three in my hometown of Valley City, N.D., some 25 years ago, when I witnessed my first mayfly hatch as big, green Hexagenias bumped into the buzzing bars above and flopped around on top of the gas tanks while I filled the boat just before dawn. I rarely recall one in that area of any significance beyond that moment in time.  I’ve been swarmed by midges so thick it was nearly impossible to breathe while fishing and have seen the shoreline at our lake cabin dance in a living fog created by fluttering caddisflies freshly emerged from the water.  No two seasonal showings are the same, either.

Last week, while staying in Michigan, from the deck of our rental cabin each morning, it was easy to get an idea what was going on in the ecosystem around us as a different set of bugs set up on the windows and gray siding of the building and watch nature’s bounty buzz along the shore.  The first day, large midges covered nearly everything as we left for our fishing trip in the dark.  On the boat too they were thick and adorned the glass windows of our guide’s vessel.

After a day marked by rain, a medium-sized genus of brown mayflies hatched and stuck to the lake side portion of the cabin, blown into place by a prevailing overnight northwest breeze. They hung on nearly every surface from the deck chairs to the awnings for a day or so until our last couple of days they took to the skies in a jumpy, up-and-down courtship display.  Mated pairs fluttered awkwardly, separated, and then presumably deposited their eggs and the cycle was complete.  By the time we checked out, the skies were generally clear of the bugs and the ritual was over.

In addition to the midges and the mayflies, the warm sun brought out dragonflies to chase the smaller bugs and the growing spring mosquito population, not unlike what occurs back home.  Soon there June bugs will appear, bumbling along the ground or overturned on their carapaces, desperately pawing six-legged at the air.  Once in a while, while airborne, with a solid “donk!” they’ll bounce off my head while running or boating along some little lake.  While I’ve never made it a point to chronicle each individual insect species and when they’ve appeared, they do make it into my fishing journal notes from time-to-time, because in the grand scheme the hatch of even the smallest insect is a big deal in summer.

Whether it’s those tiny midges first coming out in early spring, to those bigger mayflies and beetles emerging when summer gets started, or even those giant headline-grabbing cicada hatches going on out east, these insects provide a solid base for the food chain and fuel a summer of growth for fish, birds and other animals. While most anglers think trout when determining what’s hatching, species like smallmouth bass, bluegills and even walleyes will relate to the available insect forage.  For fowl such as grouse and pheasants, insects are what provide protein to just-hatched chicks developing their feathers and growing quickly as soon as they break free of their shells.

Each hatch is an important part of summer’s schedule and a baseline for building up our stocks of baitfish, panfish and game fish along with establishing a healthy population of huntable upland birds each autumn.  Observing what’s happening now can often provide an indicator down the road of how robust those species will be at the end of summer and into the leaner months of the year.  Make it a point to be more alert as to what’s hatching and figure out exactly how it is affecting fishing right now, and perhaps even the hunting yet to come…in our outdoors.