Hendricksons have arrived!

alanb_ct · 04-15-2008, 09:47 AM

I live in southern CT, and was greeted by a Hendrickson dun this morning when I left for work! Nice to see the old three-tailed mayfly again, as more than anything else, this represents the real fishing harbinger of spring. There is a smallish creek near my home that thrives with wild brown trout and occasionally a few bugs wander over to my driveway (they consider the black vinyl tonneau cover on my truck as water).

Anyway, I thought we should start up a thread about this insect, just to consolidate some useful information here for our forum. Everyone is welcome to chime in with opinions or corrections, and I know there are many! Aaron, Nymphmeister, SloNDeep, others we want to hear from you.

Here's some of what I know, all relative to CT fishing.
(0) In terms of fishing success and productivity, this hatch is sometimes way overrated. I learned this from Dave Goulet when I was just starting out.
(1) The nymphs are active for a few weeks before the hatch.
(2) The standard hatching time for the duns is about 1-2pm, when the water temperatures finally hit the low 50s. The hatching lasts about 2-3 hours, enabling you to have a sandwich around 530pm and get back to the water for the spinners.
(3) On the Housatonic, the fish rarely feed on the duns, presumably because there is so much food underwater. On a windy day, when the bugs are blown back in to the water after hatching, I have seen good numbers of splashy rises, but I think they are mostly due to small fish.
(4) I have seen big masking hatches of Blue Quills and little brown stoneflies.
(5) About two weeks after first emergence, the spinner falls may start.
(6) The spinner falls are impossibly hard to pin down. You can wait for hours watching the clouds of bugs form up, only to have a cold wind at 730pm ruin everything. Evening temperatures and wind have everything to do with these falls. Sometimes a mid-morning spinner fall can be spectacular.
(7) If you fish the spinner falls, position yourself on a section of river with a glassy water area looking west. The residual light reflecting off the water should be enough for you to see the sippers.
(8 ) Very large browns will sip the spinners.
(9) My best flies are emerger styles tied with deer hair or snowshoe hair. For spinners, I use the Red Quill and sometimes larger poly wing styles.
(10) The past few years I have also had some success with wet fly styles.

The best thing about this hatch is the anticipation it brings, and to witness Mother Nature's spectacle. In my opinion, only the Housatonic white fly hatch rivals this one in terms of biomass.

Tight lines to all.

**rwilliarp** · 04-15-2008, 11:37 AM

Great Post! You gotta love the promise and potential that the Hendrickson bring. With my luck, more times than not, high winds coincide with my prescence on the water for emergence, spinnerfall. However, I havent tried it in the morning. I'm probably missing the boat there.

Funny you mention the mayflies on your tonneau cover. I have had many mini spinner falls over my truck. They really love a glossy coat of armourall. ;D

**Magnet** · 04-20-2008, 08:38 AM

So on the Farminton, if the emergence hatch begins around one or two, would you fish nymphs in the morning? Then switch over to hendrickson emerger ? Also is the mahogany dun dry fly part of this picture?

**Brookie** · 04-20-2008, 05:04 PM

Do any of you guys ever fish a sunken spinner pattern during the spinner fall? I haven't (yet) but heard it can be a very effective method. I know many spinners will get washed under the surface and it seems likely that trout might find this easy meal hard to pass up.

alanb_ct · 04-20-2008, 08:21 PM

Brookie: I have not tied any yet, but John Barr has a sunken spinner pattern that uses Quick Descent dubbing for a little weight in the thorax. It's an all aluminum dubbing that dubs fairly fine. This seems like a good fly to try. Let us know how you do. By the end of this week, you should be able to test your theory on the Hous!

alanb_ct · 04-20-2008, 08:38 PM

Magnet: that nymphing strategy makes a lot of sense. The nymphs are active underwater before the actual hatch. It's always good to flip a few rocks and take a look. The Blue Quill or Mahogony Dun or Paraleps is sometimes a masking hatch to the more obvious Hendricksons. In fact, I found this one in my yard, but I'm not sure it's a small Hendrickson or just a blue quill

It definitely possesses the mahogony color.