Every year about this time, when another Catskill Winter begins to fade, anglers start to prepare for and talk fishing. Fly rods, reels and lines are checked to make sure all aspects of the coming season’s tackle are in order and ready. Fly boxes are also checked to ensure that every compartment has a full complement of flies that will cover the coming hatches. If there are voids, anglers who tie their own flies will plan adequate time at the fly-tying vise to make sure that every important pattern is represented adequately. Those folks who don’t tie their own will place an order with Orvis or other outlets that sell quality flies. 

About the end of March, folks will get together and have a bit of food and a beer or two in anticipation of the coming season. Much of the conversation will center on current stream conditions and upcoming hatches. 

The hatch that will receive the most attention and the most anticipation is the Hendrickson hatch. I’m not sure why we call it that, because this is one of the few mayfly hatches in which the female and male duns are distinctly different. The female is larger, with dun colored wings and a pinkish-gray body. The artificial fly was created by Roy Steenrod and named after his fishing companion, Albert Evert Hendrickson. 

The male is smaller with a reddish-brown body and the fly is called the red quill. That fly pattern was first tied by Arthur (Art) Flick way back in 1933, when he found the duns on his beloved Schoharie Creek in Greene County, NY, near West Kill, NY. 

While the Hendrickson/red quill hatch is not the first mayfly hatch of the spring season—that would be quill Gordon—it is the fly that brings large trout to the surface, because that hatch normally begins the last week in April when water temperatures have warmed enough to get trout feeding at the surface. However, I’ve observed substantial Hendrickson hatches during which there was little or no surface activity. That can occur when the water warms enough for the flies to hatch but not enough for trout to feed heavily or at the surface. While water temperatures can rise to 50 degrees Fahrenheit in time to cause Hendricksons and red quills to hatch, it might not be enough to cause trout to feed. What little feeding there was likely occurred near the bottom as the nymphs became active prior to hatching, which normally takes place around 2 p.m. 

From all the years I’ve spent on Catskill rivers during Hendrickson time, Hendricksons are always preceded by blue quills, which are much smaller and emerge around noon. While those hatches can be substantial, I’ve never seen one taken off the surface. I am told that others have, however. 

Looking back over the last 20 years or so, I tried to remember all the fishing trips when we found decent stream flows, adequate water temperatures, a good quantity of Hendrickson/red quill duns, and rising trout. And frankly, I was surprised when I recalled how few times we actually found those conditions. I remember that when we were at Peaceful Valley, there was one really good afternoon on the East Branch with my friends Heidi and Bill; there were lots of flies, with several decent brown trout landed. On that occasion, I hooked a good-sized trout only to have the knot slip, then hooked the fish again about a half an hour later with two Hendricksons in its jaw!  

Later that same day, I joined Heidi and Bill on a big flat pool, well downstream of where I had been fishing. It was about 3 p.m. and when I arrived, both were sitting on the bank watching hatching flies being gobbled by several hungry trout. When they said that they were done fishing, I waded in and landed several more browns before calling it a day. That day on the East Branch was likely in 1994 or ‘95. And I believe it was one of the best days I ever had fishing the Hendrickson hatch. 

Several years later, in late April of 2016, my friend Roger and I tried a favorite pool a ways upriver from Peaceful Valley. It was one of those warm and lazy spring days, with no wind and the leaves barely out. There were Hendricksons and red quills and a number of rising trout. Roger was upstream about 100 feet when his Hardy Princess fly reel began to sing. I waded up and landed what turned out to be a four-pound brown. A little later, I got into a very large trout, which was lost when the knot slipped. I caught that fish the next day, and it was over four pounds—my largest trout ever.

After over 20 years of looking for Hendricksons and red quills, it appears that we found favorable water conditions, good hatches and decent fishing on very few occasions. More years than not, rivers were high, cold and unfishable. They were in 2024 and again in 2025. The question, then, is what will we find at the end of April in 2026? Perhaps we’ll get lucky!