The Hendrickson Mayfly

The Hendricksons are the first of the major mayflies on most of our eastern trout streams.

This hatch can be very intense and offer some fast and furious fishing with both dryflies and nymphs. This hatch can bring up even the largest of trout on most of our rivers that receive this hatch.

 

Timing

 

This hatch happens on most of our streams sometimes between the first week of April right through till the end of the month. There might even be fishable spinners falls that last right on through the beginning of May. On rivers that are more southern, such as the South Branch of the Raritan or the Pequest you might see these insects hatching in the last week of March. On rivers more to the north like the Housatonic and the Farmington the hatch might start around the third week of April.

The hatch usually starts when the water temperature rises to fifty degrees and stays there for three to five consecutive days. This is when the bugs start to hatch. Hatching usually starts off slower for the first few days with few insects and intensifies quite quickly.

The first fishable spinner fall usually takes place after the hatch has been going on for at least a week. This is when you will see some of the large trout take up surface feeding lies and they can be caught on the appropriate spinner imitation.

Time of day and duration

 

Nymph fishing can be excellent prior to the hatch. For nymphs I would use patterns like the AP nymph, pheasant tails, hares ears and compara nymphs. All of these nymphs should be a size 10-14 to match the hatching insects. The nymph fishing can be good from mid morning and throughout the day. Look for trout to be found in riffles actively feeding on the helpless nymphs.

Dry fly fishing gets good around one on most days. Of course weather and stream temperatures can affect hatching activity. On sunny warm days the hatching can start as early as 10 am. On these days the hatching can be very brief but extremely intense. On cloudy rainy days the hatching can start around noon and the flies will hatch in spurts throughout the day. This is my favorite weather for fishing this hatch there is dryfly fishing almost all day long.

My favorite dry flies for fishing this hatch are compara emergers, comparaduns, snowshoe rabbit foot emergers and sparkle duns.

Spinner falls can offer great evening fishing. The only catch is that it has to be warm in the evening. I have stood in a riffle many an evening to see the air temperatures go down and the insect retreat to the tress to wait for another day. I usually find the best evening temperatures to be over forty-five degrees. On days when you have extreme high

temperatures the spinner falls tend to be a morning event. I remember several years back on the Housy where we had morning spinner falls when the air temps were as high as 90 degrees during the day.  

Spinner patterns can be very critical. My favorite spinner patterns are the snowshoe  spinner(one the articles page), poly winged spinner and the compara spinner.  

What ever way you like to fish, be it dries or nymphs, this super hatch can offer some of the seasons best fishing. don’t be surprised if you fish this hatch and find the trout of the season on the end of your line!