Finally, it’s the “merry month” of May - serenading us with the sweetest sounds of the songbirds, the lovely light green landscape dappled with fragrant flowers and bright blossoms on bushes and trees. The fiddleheads, those flavorful fledgling ferns, are now in various stages of unfurling, and water temperatures have warmed into the 50s.

 Our pear trees have just begun to bloom this past week, as have the vibrant purple violets in the lawn - the appearance of these flowers coincides with the mayfly hatch known as the Hendrickson. 

Hendricksons and Red Quills are both members of the same species of mayfly (Ephemerella invaria); the Hendrickson being the female, a bit larger (usually size #12) than the male, which is commonly referred to as the Red Quill (size #14). The Hendrickson hatch is the most anticipated (and can be the most prolific) mayfly hatch on the Beaverkill; and is one of the reasons for which the river is so beloved. 

One of the earliest American dry flies that was developed in the Beaverkill watershed was The Female Beaverkill, which imitated the female Hendrickson, and was created by George Cooper, “the Blacksmith from DeBruce.” Although the date he first tied the fly is unknown, it was regularly being used by 1913. The female of that species is identified by its distinctive yellow egg sac, which is featured in Cooper’s fly by the use of one turn of fine yellow chenille. The fly became a popular turn-of-the-century American pattern and is still widely used today.

Although the Hendricksons and other early mayfly hatches have been a bit less plenteous on the Beaverkill and Willowemoc so far this year, their caddis counterparts have made up the slack this past week; on Saturday afternoon we witnessed a terrific caddis hatch on the Willowemoc at Wulff Run across from the Catskill Fly Fishing Center. Phil Street, of New York and Livingston Manor, reported that he was fishing on the Willowemoc one day last week and saw flies hatching but not many fish rising. The next day, he said, there were less Hendricksons and Red Quills, “quite a bit of Apple Caddis, but again not a lot of fish rising…..more sporadic rises here and there, consistent with a Caddis hatch.

I had a better result though and caught my first fish of the season - on an Adams!” Phil remembered that last year the Hendrickson hatch was “really good, during the second and third week of April.” He had caught a number of fish during last year’s Hendrickson hatch the third week of April, but felt that this year Hendricksons are very scarce; he only saw a few on the Willowemoc, later in the day, and they weren’t raising fish: “It’s been all Caddis.”

Caddis flies are aquatic insects that appear in many different sizes and colors, and hatch all during the trout fishing season. They produce extremely prolific hatches in early May that are often referred to as “shad flies”, as their appearance coincides with the migrating of the American Shad up the Delaware to spawn. The most common of these early-May caddis hatches include the Apple caddis (Brachycentrus appalachia) and the Grannom caddis (Brachycentrus numerosis).

Dan Park, of Livingston Manor, related a productive fishing trip, stating that he caught a nice brown in the Willowemoc on Friday at around 11:30 a.m. “The caddis hatch was prevalent. I used a tan caddis that Ed (Van Put) had given me last year and caught the 18” brown on the G.

Loomis rod that he gave me to “get hooked again”.” On Friday evening Dan met up with his cousin Jon, who was renting a house on the Beaverkill, and although the caddis hatch was prevalent yet again, the cousins “did not see one fish rise.” However, Jon’s buddy “threw out a yellow rooster tail from his spinner rod and landed a 20” rainbow.”

After steady rains on Sunday, the Beaverkill at Cooks Falls crested early Monday morning at about 2403 cubic feet per second, well above the average flow of 726 cfs over 111 years of record-keeping. The continued rain that has been forecasted for this week should continue to keep water levels elevated through the weekend.

Judy Van Put is a long-time member of the NYS Outdoor Writers Association, and is the recipient of the New York State Council of Trout Unlimited’s Professional Communications Award.