The words roll off the tongues of Lake Erie walleye anglers with disdain.

“The mayflies are hatching.”

They are words no walleye angler wants to hear. Every year from late May through June, just as the weather is getting reliably good and anglers are itching to get out on Erie, Mother Nature throws us her mayfly curveball.

Mayflies are the flying insects that emerge from their nymph stage from the bottom mud of Lake Erie. They rise to the surface and molt into adults with wings that enable them to fly from the surface.

When the hatch is in full bloom, we are confronted with a natural phenomenon that is good for the fish but annoyingly bad for anglers. As nymphs rise from the bottom and molt on the surface, the walleyes, perch, bass and other fish gorge on the buggy bounty.

Those that survive their swim to the top fly free of the water and flutter in numbers beyond comprehension, forming annoying thick clouds of bugs that land on every solid surface – boats and anglers included. Pro walleye angler Sammy Cappelli of Poland has endured his fair share of mayfly hatches over the years, but candidly admits he has no secret tactic to rise above the mayfly predicament.

“They can be miserable,” he said, acknowledging that when the hatch is on, the insects can be overwhelming. “It can be hard to eat anything or even talk.”

Mayflies, also known as Canadian soldiers among other nicknames, emerge in such enormous numbers that game fish like walleyes and bass become preoccupied with feeding on the annual bounty. That, in turn, makes anglers’ job of catching fish more difficult.

Cappelli is more experienced than most walleye anglers, but he acknowledged if he had the solution to getting bug-stuffed ‘eyes to bite, he would have earned a ton of money. These days he leans on new technology to help unlock the mayfly dilemma.

“Well, a hatch can make the bite tougher,” he said. “I have found the fish to be higher in the water column, even right under the surface. But now with forward-facing sonar you can sharpshoot a single fish and keep dropping a jig-and-crawler on their head until they eat.”

Forward-facing sonar enables anglers to scan 70 feet or so around their boats to identify structure, cover, baitfish and game species. Anglers can pinpoint the depth of the action and the direction to which they should toss their lures.

“I’ve learned that even if a fish is not actively feeding and you continue to force feed them, they will eventually eat or just attack your bait out of frustration,” Cappelli said. “One day it took me 22 minutes to catch this walleye. My teammate Anthony Naples timed me. I followed that fish on my Lowrance AT2 around the lake and just kept dropping a crawler on its head until it ate.”

Cappelli said the new technology is particularly helpful in a situation such as the mayfly hatch. Forward-facing sonar delivers images of fish and their reactions to lures in real time.

“If you can find the fish and watch its reaction, 99% of the time you can make it eat.”

And that applies even if the fish’s belly is swollen with hundreds of mayflies.

Jack Wollitz has experienced the Lake Erie mayfly mayhem many times over the years. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.