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MikeA57

MikeA57

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Olive Branch, MS
Question for ya - In Alumacraft Joe's thread on Fishing Camp you said:
"If I'm not tourney fishing, I'll pick up some june bugs (the bigguns) and put it on a hook with my texas rigged worms. Each time I've done that (only twice) I pulled out 1 bass at 5.3 and another at 5.0... it's a great bass catcher!"

Are you talking about the brown hard shell bugs? I've recently realized that what I called June bugs when I was growing up in Louisville, KY and what people here in Southern TN/Northern MS call June bugs are completely different. We used to call the green Japanese beetles "June Bugs" up home. Down here though they call the round brown hardshell bugs that just love to bang into light bulbs June bugs. We would take a string and tie it around one of their legs and let 'em fly around.

In any event, how do you keep them alive? They seem very fragile and die easily. Just curious about some of the finer details of your technique there.

Thanks,

Mike
 

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This is a Junebug, they are about 10 million of them flying around outside right now in a field by where I live.
 
those are the junebugs... except the one's I caught were a bit bigger and had more of a blue tint.

I didn't catch them in the yard... I would be out in my jon boat, and I'd see them fluttering on top of the water unable to get back up and fly. I'd troll over and pick them up, throw them on my texas rigged 4/0 hook with the 7.5" Yum Ribbontail worm (oddly in june bug color for this lake) and toss it out and just let it sit there. They pretty much died when the hook went through their whole body, but the fish didn't mind. It only took about 1min of it sitting there with me barely shaking it for them to take it.

Like I've said, I've only done this twice, because there were only 2 bugs I was able to catch where I was sitting on the lake... and both of them caught big fish.
 
Yeah, see, we don't have those around here. Wish we did. And whj812, what you pictured may be what we used to play with and not the ones with gold wings. I thought something didn't look right when i grabbed that picture but I attributed it to OAML (Old Aged Memory Lapse).

The brown ones we have around here are considerably smaller than that. They're about the size of a snap on a coat and they come out when it's getting dark. They fly right toward a light and smack into it. Then they fall to the ground on their back and flap their wings real fast trying to turn themselves over. They'll wear themselves out trying to get back upright and the next morning you can go out where you were and the ground/floor is just littered with them. Stupid bugs. They're attracted to anything that's lighter than the surrounding darkness. My wife and I went out riding the 4 wheelers the other night and you could see them flying erratically then suddenly change direction and fly directly for you and smack you right in the face...
 
MikeA57 said:
Yeah, see, we don't have those around here. Wish we did. And whj812, what you pictured may be what we used to play with and not the ones with gold wings. I thought something didn't look right when i grabbed that picture but I attributed it to OAML (Old Aged Memory Lapse).

The brown ones we have around here are considerably smaller than that. They're about the size of a snap on a coat and they come out when it's getting dark. They fly right toward a light and smack into it. Then they fall to the ground on their back and flap their wings real fast trying to turn themselves over. They'll wear themselves out trying to get back upright and the next morning you can go out where you were and the ground/floor is just littered with them. Stupid bugs. They're attracted to anything that's lighter than the surrounding darkness. My wife and I went out riding the 4 wheelers the other night and you could see them flying erratically then suddenly change direction and fly directly for you and smack you right in the face...
Click to expand...

You're talking about May Flies... annoying as crap. Never fished with them, but I'm sure 2 or 3 on a hook wouldn't hurt... the fish don't care if they're dead or alive
 
Naw, these are Mayflies. The ones I'm talking about are hard shell bugs that are round and dark tan/light brown in color. I'm going to have to look closer at them and maybe take a picture. I did however find one of the all green June bugs laying dead on the floor of my workshop a couple of days ago. I had not seen one of them in a long time!!

Mike
 

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that's those bad boys!! I picked a couple up around the workbench last night and took a closer look at them. None I found was picture worthy so I didn't take the time to photograph any. I guess they might work as well as the larger green June bugs.

Mike
 
Everbody calls the brown ones Junebugs around here.

The Japanese beetles are a relative newcomer to this area (they showed up 3 years ago). I had never seen one before then but they are wearing my trees out since. I just sprayed my Japanese maple (coincidence?) last night. I bet there were 300 of those things laying in the driveway dead this morning.

I don't know that I have ever seen one of the beetles like whj812 posted around here.

The fish in KY and Barkley lakes go nuts when there is a mayfly hatch.... and the hatches can be massive.
 
Quack - you better get rid of those beetles, or atleast try to control them a little. We have them bad here, and they love my japanese maple.

I buy these Bag-A-Bug traps for them... and I have to replace them about once per week because they are full of them... https://lawn-and-garden.hardwaresto...m=cpc&utm_term=507276&utm_campaign=googlebase

If you have bermuda grass, they will eat that stuff up too... lay their eggs and then have a million more of them the next day!
 
Get rid of the bag-a-bug trap. They actually draw more of the things to your house that would otherwise go somewhere else. I learned that the hard way the first year that they showed up after buying one and then doing the research. I had beetles to start but had a blue million of them a week after putting the bag up. After taking the trap down, they somewhat dispersed on their own to a much lower concentration. I saw the same in doing some internet research after the fact.

I spray the trees with Malathion. Kills the heck out of them. I just hadn't paid any attention to this particular tree since I got back Sunday and they had moved in on it with a vengeance. The top of it looks terrible now. I'm having a heck of a time with it between a hard freeze in late spring followed by a drought two years ago and a big ice storm this winter. Now the bugs. I can't catch a break.
 
my problem was just the opposite... I had tons of them, then when I put out 8 of these bags (I use atleast 8-10 at a time) they started going away. I only have about 5 bags out now, and I don't have to dump them as often as I did at the beginning of their season.

These GA beetles have a mind of their own... and most of them are stupid. My grass is the main reason I put them out. I sprayed it last year with some stuff and with the drought and water ban they had us on, it all died - and the beetles kept coming.

I'll try that Malathion though... the one thing I haven't tried yet.
 
russ010 said:
my problem was just the opposite... I had tons of them, then when I put out 8 of these bags (I use atleast 8-10 at a time) they started going away. I only have about 5 bags out now, and I don't have to dump them as often as I did at the beginning of their season.

These GA beetles have a mind of their own... and most of them are stupid. My grass is the main reason I put them out. I sprayed it last year with some stuff and with the drought and water ban they had us on, it all died - and the beetles kept coming.

I'll try that Malathion though... the one thing I haven't tried yet.
Click to expand...


Malathion works great... use it everyday for about a week on my roses and the beetles are gone.
 

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