Hex-Mania

IF HEXAGENIA LIMBATA isn’t the GOAT of all bugs, it’s at least squarely in the conversation, beginning with its sheer size and density. “Nothing in flyfishing even comes close to the spinner fall,” says the legendary Kelly Galloup in Chris Santella’s book, The Hatch is On! “I don’t care how big a salmonfly or Mother’s Day caddis or Hendrickson hatch you’ve seen, it doesn’t compare in pure biomass.”

The hex facts are so difficult to digest that over the decades they’ve taken on a mythical, even biblical, quality. Yes, the hatch can be so thick and large, stretching up to five miles in the Great Lakes region, that it is occasionally picked up on Doppler weather radar and mistaken for thunderstorms. Yes, there are times in Northern Michigan, or around Lake Erie, when