From: Willi

My guess is that this is a heavy hatch in your parts.

The 'hatch' is actually several hatches of various yellowish mayflies from size
14 - 20. The activity can be quite heavy at times, and on our local tailwater
generally stars the last week in May, and can last until Labor Day. The streams
I fish further north have less complex hatches of shorter duration, and body
color is not nearly as important.

I suspect you're right about the intensity and duration of hatches relating to
the selectivity of the fish. For example, the Farmington River is a large
tailwater in CT, and is famous for its prolific Hendrickson hatch. On a good
day the flies can hatch in such numbers as to make fishing futile....just too
damn many naturals on the water. On this stream, the distinction between the
Hendrickson, (female), and Red Quill, (male), is important, as the fish seem to
be able to tell the difference. On other streams in the area that have
Hendricksons, it is not nearly as important. Usually either pattern will work.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller