What the hell are they doing here, now?
I don't plan my fishing trips. Hatches. Weather. Fellow Anglers. None are ever a consideration for when I fish. I fish when I can.* In fact, it's my favorite time to fish.
 |
| Buy the bugs a calendar! |
The hatch chart says late April to early May so we're actually trying to plan a fishing trip in advance. Just getting our personal and professional calendars aligned has been challenging and now the friggin' bugs have gone and buggered it all up.
I've never really paid all that much attention to the waxing and waning of the particular hatches. When I'm on the water I check to see what's "in season" but I don't fish the hatches per se. Someday I'd like to fish some of the more famous hatches, especially the Drake hatches, but it's going to have to wait for a time when my calendar is a whole lot more flexible than it is today.
I don't have enough years on the Housatonic to have the hatch cycles fully dialed in so I consulted the hatch charts and called up the fly shop. That got me thinking about a late April trip, which it turns out is around my buddy's birthday so it coulda been quite the event.
In mid-March, I made a call to the fly shop to confirm the progression of the season and it yielded some distrubing news. The late Stoneflies were waning, the fortsythia was in full bloom and the Hendricksons were expected any day. In fact, the first appeared around the 24th. That's almost a month early?!
So now our late April trip won't be a Hendrickson trip if it's any trip at all.
And now I feel a sense of urgency to actually fish the Hendrickson hatch since that idea has fully germinated in my brain.
And I've got enough commitments over the next four days to fairly guarantee that I'm going to miss this weekend's shot at fishing the hatch.
Which makes me sad.
And angry.
Damn those Hendricksons!
* Excepting the Black Friday Housy trip and the early November Steelhead trip.
This year I don't think you can plan anything around anything. Nothing is cooperating. Makes you want to pull your hair out except for me, because I don't have any hair.
ReplyDeleteMark
Sadly, I too am left with few options when it comes to hair pulling.
DeleteDamn Hendricksons!!
ReplyDeleteGood. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.
DeleteWhew! I've gotta stop mainlining the caffeine. Where's the scotch?
Right here.
ReplyDeleteThe herring are hatching. Stop playing around with stockie bait, already.
Jonny
This may be the year that the yak and the 8 wt get some work on the salt.
DeleteThis is about to become "one of those years"
ReplyDeleteSadly, it seems so.
DeleteI had to cancel my secret Tennessee "Quill Gordon Extravaganza" trip this year, and the only real silver lining was the fact I'd have largely missed the Quill Gordons -- they hatched almost a month early.
ReplyDeleteOf course, my win is sorta your loss, at least in this instance.
I'd trade you a weekday chasing Hendricksons for a 20 hour plane flight...
Cancelled trips, never a good thing.
DeleteI feel your pain. I'm traveling to India on business in a few months and unlike the good old days when you could fly business (or even first) class it's all cattle class now. Seventeen hours Chicago to Delhi. Good times.
I know what you mean...I have a Delaware trip coming up in 4 weeks for the "normal" Hendrickson hatch and they are already coming off...oh well, I'm sure something will be bound to work.
ReplyDeleteAbout the best you can hope for at this point is a good spinner fall. Or throwing tiny BWOs to finicky fish. Good luck.
Delete