Hendo Help

[troutless]

HI, hope everyone is having a great start to the season. Was wondering if anyone had a Hendrickson pattern they could share, it will be my first time fishing this hatch. The site has a video of the hendo hammer which looks like a killer but with that said I'm lacking a few of the materials namely red fox dubbing. So I'm hoping for some input on a substitute for the red fox dubbing would a standard pheasant tail work? Thanks

 

[laszlo]

If you have a pinkish gray dubbing that might be close enough.

 

[CLSports]

Or a burgandy color too. I think the males are darker. Use any of your favorite dry fly patterns and just use different color dubbing. I like to fish the spinner fall of that hatch especially when the egg layers are dropping on the water. Spent wing rusty spinners also work.

 

[discomidge]

FWIW I'm sure pheasant or turkey tail would work for the shuck. I use them for the shuck section of a similar sulphur fly.

 

[McSneek]

#12 or #14 deer hair comparadun. Tie some with red quill dubbing or standard pink Hendrickson dubbing. Can substitute a cdc wing for the deer hair. Microfibbet tail or Antron shuck.

Want to get fancy? Use a stripped brown hackle stem for the body.

I am confident a pheasant tail body would work too. I would tie that fly on a curved hook emerger style.

 

[JimNovo]

The Hendo Hammer I tied and posted a pic of used quite a few different materials. I used a mahogany quill for the shuck, dark Dun Antron for the post and superfine Hendrickson pink dubbing for the thorax.

Be creative with what you have (yes pheasant tail will work great for the shuck) and tie emergers (I like a cdc loopwing version), duns (think parachute or comparadun) and those rusty brown spinners.

Superfine dubbing in the Hendrickson pink and Mahogany will do very well for the girl and boy bugs.

 

[troutless]

Thanks for all the replies there is a lot of info about Hendricksons on the web just wanted more local knowledge. I believe the mixing of pink and gray dubbing suits my skill level the best.

 

[moon1284]

Thread- red
Wing- coastal deer hair
Thorax - brown or pink dubbing
Body - Hendrickson or rusty spinner turkey biot
Tail - moose hair

 

[krayfish2]

Thread- red
Wing- coastal deer hair
Thorax - brown or pink dubbing
Body - Hendrickson or rusty spinner turkey biot
Tail - moose hair

Are you sure you are identifying those patterns correctly? Lmao 🤣

 

[krayfish2]

For the first 4 hatches, I basically fish one pattern.... just different sizes. Rumor is that it's working for 20+ years now. Hint, 4 mayfly hatches but I fish a caddis pattern. Fish are dumb 😁

 

[moon1284]

Are you sure you are identifying those patterns correctly? Lmao 🤣

Yea thats a rusty spinner pattern!!

 

[troutbert]

"Hendo?"

Kids these days.

For the body, I used the dubbing from a Hare's ear mask that is tan with a slightly reddish tinge.

 

[Classicriver]

There are a number of color variations and subspecies of mayflies known as Hendricksons. I see more tannish colored duns than anything else here in the Catskills. That was also the case on Penns Creek. Light to medium tan with just a touch of gray makes a good general imitation and, if you are fishing wild trout, I suggest a CDC sparkle dun tie: Dark Brown Antron yarn shuck, dun CDC feathers or puffs for the wing, fanned out 180 degrees comparadun style. Size 14 seems most common, though I would tie a few 16's and 12's too.

 

[troutbert]

Tan dubbing is fine. You don't need to get fancy with it.

And when you encounter a "Hendo" hatch, take a look at the actual bugs. And use that as your guide.

 

[csoult]

Hendricksons from Penns this year. Krayfish is right, fish are dumb, but look how dark the wing is on the spinner compared to other spinners, although it is still in the upright wing stage. I may tie a few darker winged spinners.

 

[dryflyguy]

I used to tie 2 dun patterns:
Rusty red body for the male - known as a red quill.
Light pink body for the female - known as the pink lady

But really don't think it matters much in my experience.
And just fish the red quill now.

I've also used a quill a gordon - tannish colored body - during hendrickson hatches.
And visa versa.

Agree with the others that they're not that smart or picky

 

[JeffK]

Early mayflies were once known as the "April Grays" and gray dubbing (muskrat or beaver) seemed to work fine for all of them. Adams, Catskill fly with gray or brown hackle and tail and gray wing, gray sparkle dun, gray parachute, and gray down wing deer hair (or snowshoe rabbit) emerger type flies (i.e. X-caddis) all seem to work in different sizes. There are other good patterns as well. Pick your favorite.

Simpler view of old times was to use gray dries for early mayflies whether hendos, olives, blue quills or quill gordons, then there was a caddis period when the early mayflies died out where wet flies ruled followed by the lighter mayflies - sulphurs, Cahills, march browns etc. About 10 years ago on a lark I just used Adams for the early hatches and either a tan sparkle dun or a parachute Cahill for the later hatches. Of course because I am a fly fisherman I went back to tying all sorts of specialized patterns (plus rusty spinners have their place), but I don't think I caught any less fish with a few patterns. I've had size 16 tan X-caddis work for sulphurs and size 16 tan sparkle dun work for tan caddis. Similar flies with either an up or down wing. We care more than the trout. Plus presentation is more important than pattern.