It was nice to finally have a weekend that was fairly dry, after all the rainy days we’ve had this spring, with a partly sunny week expected ahead.

Surprisingly with all the rain, our rivers and streams as of Sunday afternoon are still dropping to a below average level.

The Beaverkill at Cooks Falls was flowing at 842 cubic feet per second, which is just below the median average flow for this date of 868 cfs over 110 years of record-keeping. Water temperatures have ranged from a high of just over 52 degrees F last Tuesday to a low of just under 44 degrees on Sunday morning.

Fly hatches continue to be the early-season Blue Quills and Quill Gordons, and over the past two weeks, the greatly-anticipated Hendricksons have made their appearance. The forsythia is in full bloom, which generally occurs during the Hendrickson hatch - their earlier budding stages coincide at the same time as the emergence of the Blue Quills and Quill Gordons. These signs of nature are a better determining agent for when the fly hatches will occur - and tend to be more reliable than just looking at calendar dates. Some years the hatches come earlier than others depending on the air and water temperatures.

I remember one instance several years back when a friend called to say he was fishing near Pennsylvania in mid-April during a freak snowstorm that happened to coincide with a fantastic Hendrickson hatch.

He said he was freezing cold, the air was filled with snow and flies, but the fishing was terrific….normally he would not have even considered going out to fish under such inclement conditions but he happened to be already on the river, ending up a short fishing trip when the snowstorm popped up suddenly and the Hendricksons started hatching.

And on another occasion we were driving along the Willowemoc through Livingston Manor in front of the school when a heavy Hendrickson hatch occurred mid-day. Children were streaming out of the school and crossing the stone bridge above the river only to encounter hundreds and thousands of flies hatching - most children were screaming, waving their arms and trying to get away from the flies as quickly as possible, thinking they were “bugs” that “bite.”

Fortunately Hendricksons and other mayflies that are hatching do not “bite” - in fact they do not have functioning mouthparts or even the ability to eat at this stage in their development. These adult flies are hatching and preparing to reproduce, which is their only purpose at this point in their lifecycle. After the female lays her eggs, they will hatch in two weeks and become nymphs. 

The nymph resides in the stream bottom for about one year, and then emerges from its nymphal stage to shed its skin and become a Subimago. After 24 hours, the Subimago transforms into its final stage, or Imago, where its only purpose is to reproduce. These adult flies will swarm above the stream (or sometimes above a road or sidewalk near a stream) in their mating dance until dark. The female lays her eggs and then dies, and the cycle starts again.

Fishing has been great during these past two weeks, and fly fishers have been doing well catching trout on various Hendrickson patterns. Seth Cavarretta was out fishing during the eclipse on Monday afternoon, April 8, and noticed that Hendricksons were starting to come off the water pretty steadily – not heavily, but there were fish rising to them here and there.

Seth concentrated on fishing to the rises and on this outing was successful in catching six trout - up to about 16 inches in length. The first was taken on a Hendrickson pattern he devised himself, and the next few were caught on a traditional Steenrod-type Hendrickson pattern. The last was taken on a Quill Gordon. He reported that fish were rising from 3:20 till about 4:30 p.m., not bad for an hour’s fishing!

Mike Konecni, working for Dette Flies, also found good fishing while guiding on the Willowemoc. On Saturday he noted a great Hendrickson hatch from about 2:30 that lasted until almost 4:00. He said the fish were “feeding like crazy” and his client was delighted, never having seen a real hatch with so many fish rising. He caught “lots of fish” on a couple of Hendrickson patterns, the largest between 19 and 20 inches.

Both Seth’s and Mike’s fish look to be ‘holdovers’ - meaning they were hatchery fish that had been stocked last year and held over the winter; the rivers hadn’t yet been stocked by the DEC. As can be seen in the photos, the fish are in great condition after surviving a relatively mild winter that brought plenty of rain and fairly warm conditions, with no major ice-out or anchor ice to disrupt the fish in the stream or the stream bottom and its population of bottom-dwelling nymphs and insects.

Over on the Delaware and its East and West branches, Hendrickson hatches have produced fish as well. Pat Cook and a few buddies were out floating the river and did well, catching a number of fish all day until about 6:00 p.m.

Now is the time to get out - especially in the afternoon. Make sure you carry along some Hendrickson patterns and watch for hatches. Tight lines!