Has anyone seen a really good pseudo or Hendrickson hatch?

 

There are three factors worthy of consideration in trying to assess the reasons for what I thought was a very difficult April, fishing wise. The wind, the low water, and the lack of bugs.

The wind - As I have previously stated, the "Hendrickson winds", are an understandable event. The sun is high in the sky, it heats up the ground, there are no leaves on the trees to both keep the ground from heating up and  to keep the heat from rising. The thermals rise and create wind which peaks when the Hendricksons are hatching. It happens every year. What makes this year different?  There were neither Hendricksons nor rising fish to distract us.

The lack of water - It started last fall. Call it whatever you want but it was so dry that NYC cancelled the repair work on the pipe under the Hudson for fear of NYC running out of water. Releases were cut back, fish couldn't get up the tributaries to spawn, spawning beds in the tailwaters were left waterless when flows were reduced. The reservoirs didn't fill, and the WB tributaries filled the WB with silt which has not been flushed out by reservoir spill water. Many of the effects of the low water probably won't be felt for a year or two, (reduced survival rate of fingerlings from 2024, and lack of young fish in the tributaries because spawning fish couldn't get up the tributaries to spawn.

The lack of bugs - It is now evident that both the pseudo, (aka blue quill), and Hendrickson hatches on the freestones, (BR, EB, and BK), were virtually non existent. The hatches I have witnessed have been nothing more than a smattering  of the bugs, insufficient to even get fish up and feeding. The jury is still out on the tailwaters. I've heard reports of both pseudo and Hendrickson hatches on both the UEB and the WB. I've seen and caught fish on Hendricksons in the WB. However, the bugs I saw hatch were a mere shadow of what you would call a hatch in prior years. Why? I have no clue, but if something has affected all of the may flies the way it has affected the pseudos and Hendricksons, we are in for a very challenging season.   

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