Insects, particularly immature stage before insects reaching the adult stage called nymphs, or any insect that lands on the surface, is consumed by bass. Some suggest insects can make up over 25% of the bass’ diet depending on season and insect availability.
Why is Understanding Insects Important?
It is important to understand insects to:
Find Bass: Generally, bass consume insects based on the seasonal life-cycle of that insect.
Select a Lure: Selecting the best lure based on mimicking the specific insect species during or near the time it is part of the bass’ diet.
Understand Insects as Bass Forage
Mayfly Nymphs: [wiki] Mayfly hatch attracts small fish and bass in a concentrated area where Mayfly, Caddisflies, Dragonflies and Damselflies Nymphs are bass forage much of the year.
Additional Considerations
Common insects in bass’ diet:
Caddisflies: [Wiki] [Figure 1] Also called Caseworms, have 1,340 species in North America. Caddisfly larvae [Figure 2]tend to closely resemble caterpillars. Larvae are 1/2 to 1 inch.
Larvae Habitat:
Portable Cases – Mobile Larvae [Figure 3 & 4]: Some species are known for their portable cases made from grains of sand, larger fragments of rock, bark, sticks, leaves, seeds and mollusc shells depending on the species which are neatly arranged and stuck onto the outer surface of the silken tube. Bass will eat the larvae and in these tube shaped portable cases.
Stationary Cases – Larvae Homes: Some species are known for tubes of sand and other particles held together by silk and anchored to the bottom including hollows in rocks. Bass will eat the larvae when they leave to get food or eat both the larvae and the protected case.
Nets – Larvae Food Traps [Figure 5]: Some species that typically live in moving water are known to create and live in nets.
Surface Molt:[Figure 1]Larvae swim to the surface, molt, where bass will eat them, then fly away to mate which can take a few weeks. They don’t eat as they focus on reproduction.
Adult Females: Return to water, some species go underwater to lay her eggs, she can stay under for up to 30 minutes while she glues her eggs to submerged rocks and vegetation. She does this by using air that is trapped on her tiny hairs for oxygen. All die afterwards becoming stationary food for bass.
Color: Variety of colors including gray, brown, purplish brown, yellowish tan, and green.
Figure 1: Adult Caddisfly courtesy of Wikipedia
Figure 2: Caddis Fly Larvae courtesy of Macroinvertebrates.org
Figure 3: Caddisflies Larvae and Portable Case 1 courtesy of Wikipedia
Figure 4: Caddisflies Larvae and Portable Case courtesy of Wikipedia
Figure 5: Caddisflies Larvae Net courtesy of Wikipedia
Mayflies[Figure 6] also called Dayflies, Shadflies, or Fishflies, are found all over the world, spend most of their life on the bottom and during the mayfly hatch they come to the surface, dry, and then fly living up to a day.
Offshore: Bass target Mayflies when:
Mayflies Larvae on the Bottom: Not considered common for bass to eat the around 1 inch Mayfly Larvae and Mayfly Nymph [Figure 7]
Mayflies Coming to the Surface: Bass feed on mayflies as they transcend from the bottom to the surface .
Mayflies on the Surface: Bass eat surface mayflies, or small fish that are feeding on mayflies, when the mayflies are on the surface waiting to their wings to dry possibly .
Near Shore: Bass eat surface mayflies, or small fish eating Mayflies, that have fallen off water structures, trees, brush, anything above he water as Mayflies often land on the nearest possible location once airborne.
Mayfly Hatch Locations: Nymph habitat varies on each lake but once found very likely the same location next year.
When and Where Mayfly Hatch: Hatch typically in May and June depending on location, typically with water temperatures reach 70 to 72 degrees and is identifiable by seeing the Mayflies. Finding the hatch using visual cues such as a feeding frenzies of baitfish or bass or using electronics as the hatch will appear cloudy with lines and blotches on the electronics including side imaging. Hatch locations are generally in clear water on sand, silt, gravel bottom compositions often with algae and organic matter for the the Mayfly larvae and nymph to eat. The depth depends on the species which can be shallow or medium depth.
Flying Stage: When mayflies fly they reproduce and die as they not have functional mouthparts or digestive systems.
Life Span Once Flying: They have approximately 24 hours of time to mate with each other and drop eggs back into the water before they die. The eggs will settle to the bottom and incubate from a few days to a few months, depending on water temperature and a multitude of other conditions.
Large Quantities: Mayfly hatches are well-known for their mass emergences, which can cover areas tens or hundreds of square kilometers in size with swarms estimated to be 125–250 m thick; these are significant enough to be detected and tracked on masse on weather radar6
Figure 6: Mayfly courtesy of Wikipedia
Figure 7: Mayfly Larvae and Nymph (roughly 1 inch) courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation
Figure 8: Dragonfly Laying Eggs courtesy of Learn About Nature
Dragonflies and Damselflies : Dragonfly, and the similar but smaller and slimmer Damselflies, to which there is over 450 species in United States, typically stay close to water; most species of dragonfly spend the majority of their life underwater as Nymphs.
Nymphs: [Figure 9] Also known as Naiads, depending on the species, they live four to seven years as Nymphs, prior to coming to shore at night to become a adult. They are from 1/2 inch to 2 inches.
Adults: [Figure 8] Not common for adult Dragonflies to land on water where they would be vulnerable to bass except when they are laying their eggs.
Figure 9: Dragonfly Nymphs or Naiads courtesy of Wikipedia
Other Insects: Bass will eat any insect that comes into contact with water including grasshoppers [Figure 10] flies, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, etc
Figure 10: Grasshopper on Water Courtesy of Montana Trout Wranglers
It's About the Allure
Cicada Lure Bug Lure – Likely a Wake Bait potentially using a
Mayflies on coming to the surface brown grub style plastic on a jig or a hair jig. Topwater that mimics the baitfish that are feeding on the mayfly or a mayfly looking lure????
