" If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads you're doing something wrong" - John Gierach
1. If the fly has two tails it's not a Hendrickson because they have three. Most likely it's the first cousin the Quill Gordon. The Gordons hatch first but there can be some overlap to these hatches.
2. The magic conditions for Hendrickson are water temperature and atmospheric conditions. Personal experience by this writer and others I trust mark off 54 degrees as the perfect water temperature for the hatch. That means that this should be a mid day/ afternoon hatch. You will not see floating duns at 7am, period. Now for atmospheric conditions. I've seen the heaviest hatches on overcast days. Not the dark, cold BWO conditions but a hazy sky and mild air temperatures. That will trigger them. One thing that doesn't deter the hatch is high water. If the temperature is right they will hatch but if the flow is too heavy the trout will not rise for them. One local dry fly guy has this up and one rafting guide said he killed thousands with his oars but not one trout rose. My theory is that the high water keeps the trout from seeing the mayflies on the surface. Fish wet flies!!!
3. From the Catskill patterns to Art Flicks quill bodies to Caucci and Nastasi comparaduns to Bob Wyatts DHE series, all will take trout but some better that others. You have to fine out which ones.
Ken
We are starting the best month of fly fishing. Rivers like the Ware, EB and it's cousins the WB and the MB should be fine.
Go Fish!!
10 comments:
Happy Spring Ken,
I tied up a few of your "Kim's Specials" highlighted on your 12/22/08 blog (been doing a little trolling of your former posts). They were just the ticket for some stupid stockbows Connecticut stocked in Hazardville. Lot's of fun when a plan comes together. PS: I tied them with no body. Worked fine..
Blessings,
Bob O
Bob O,
Good to hear from you and thanks for going back in time for that "Kim's Special". I'm going to tie some up!
Ken
So if water temperature is key then I don't need a daybreak start for hendricksons.
GW
GW, dry fly action for Hendrickson duns is usually in the afternoon with spinners to follow in the evening (though I have hit morning spinner falls as well), so no need to start early. However, nymphs or wet flies can fish great in the mornings as the nymphs are active swimmers... dark brown nymphs, dark Hendrickson wets, soft hackle pheasant tails, etc.
I will be very curious to here if the Hendricksons are still around on central Mass rivers.
I used to fish the Quabog a lot and it's Hendrickson hatch was often going by 15th of April and strong by Patriots Day, and over by the 1st of May.
Where I fish these days is more to the north and west of central mass - a colder environment where the hatches generally start about a week after folks start reporting them on the Farmington and Housatonic.
This year, despite chilly water temps, there were Hendricksons going on Patriots Day, with duns showing to varying degrees of intensity through last Saturday. Since then - almost nothing. The grannom caddis have started to show in great clouds and this is almost always at the tail end of the Hendrickson hatch.
This is about 10 - 14 days earlier than the old "normal" hatch schedules, which are all but meaningless now.
Anyhow - it will be interesting to see what the folks that fish Central Mass rivers see over the next week or so.
Anonymous,
I look for water temperatures in the low to mid 50's for a hendrickson hatch and we've just gotten to that point in the last week. The Ware went from 52 to 56 yesterday.
Ken
Great day blue-lining in a non-stocked part of the Wachusett Reservoir watershed. Fish rising everywhere, probably two-dozen lightning quick hits in an hour that produced 5 native brookies, one pretty nice creek chub, and the surprise of the day--a 6-inch landlocked salmon parr.
Charles
Hi Ken - Speaking of Hendrickson’s, I happen to have a great day today with the wet nymph on the Housy here in Mass. There was a good hatch today with lots of duns on the water and flying around. The water was a bit high, but wadeable. I feel the hatch has been stretched out in recent years. It occurs a bit later and last a little longer. The drawback being there tend to be less heavy hatch days then the past?? I used a simple double nymph rig all day and got more and more on the swing as the hatch progressed. I always look forward to the Hendrickson’s on the Housy…….there is a song in there somewhere? :)
Andrew
Falsecast,
Good to hear from you and good to see a Housy report. I have to get out there and fish that river someday. And yes, there's a song there. I'm thinking banjos.
Charles,
That's a very good day!!!!!
We got into a really nice hatch of hendricksons this saturday on the deerfield.
The guide kept insisting that there are large wild rainbows in there, and to be totally honest I am somewhat convinced because we got some relaly nice rainbows with beautiful undamaged fins, but also had some holdovers that had clearly "healed" a bit, and also had a sample set of chunky stockies to compare the alledged river born fish to. It was actually pretty startling to see the difference and I found myself starting to believe.
But again, it certainly would benefit the guides for people to think theyre getting wild fish while cranking up stocked fish all day. Had a blast but I am very very curious about this!
It just seems so unbelievable to me that there are wild browns in the deerfield that grow to 20+.
Ken or anyone else here who may know - any idea if this is true?
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