My mind leafed through the pages of a crumbling paperback to drawings made by a master with whom I was barely familiar. “This must be a Quill Gordon,” I said. “No, I think it’s a Hendrickson.”

I remember the day as if it were yesterday because it was my birthday and that Hendrickson was one of the best gifts I ever received. I’ve now spent 20-some years fishing this hatch. Twenty-some years of wrapping feathers on hooks. Twenty-some years of casting the same flies into the same pools. Twenty-some years of looking for new runs — examining duns, flipping rocks, devising new patterns. I hope I have many more years left, because the Hendrickson hatch is a many-pieced puzzle.

No hatch brings Northeastern anglers out like the Hendrickson. It’s our first reliable hatch of good-sized bugs, bugs we can see. Midges and the odd Blue-Winged Olive hatch get us some casting practice, but the Hendrickson is something altogether different. Parking lots become as full as the streams. The abundance of anglers and the seasonal abundance of water compound the difficulties of the hatch. When the water is colder than usual, Hendrickson Time becomes a spectator sport. The key to success is diversification, and it should start long before the first dun floats by.

This and 13 other articles can be found in the 2010 Issue of Hatches Magazine(will be published September 1st)