One of Those Years

That’s Chris Farley as “El Niño” from an old Saturday Night Live sketch, and it certainly is living up to its reputation lately. Warming waters in the Pacific Ocean have translated in to very average temperatures to this point in the summer for us in the eastern U.S., and a seemingly unending rainy and overcast weather pattern, but it looks like it will warm up, especially in August. Will this mean more sun in the upcoming months? Hopefully …

It appears that El Niño affects various parts of the United States differently – hotter for some, more precipitation for others, usually dependent on the flow of the jet stream. For us, it has meant average temps in June, but the forecast is for a warmup later this summer. Unfortunately, that’s only half the story, as we have had quite a few low pressure systems get trapped off of Maine that seem to spin endlessly, affecting us in northern New England.

Day after day we’ve had rainy, humid weather for the last couple of weeks, with no end in sight, either. While overcast weather is generally a good thing for anglers (and it has been for many of our river fishermen), in this case it has had a negative result for those that wait for the Back Lake hexagenia hatch like a kid anticipating Christmas morning. Sunny, hot and humid weather really gets the hex hatch cooking, and we simply have not had that this year.

The only part of that equation that we’ve had consistently is humidity, and the mosquito and black fly production has been excessive over the last month (at least they’re happy about the weather). While it was warm a couple of days last week, the temps have dropped back in to the low 70’s this week – not really warm enough to kick start the hex hatch. It has also been overcast most days, which results in shorter daylight hours to be out there on the lake.

The hex hatch is happening, when the weather permits however. Several times in the past week, we’ve had ill-timed thunderstorms or rain in the evening, just as the hatch would be getting started, putting a quick end to any activity out on the lake. Reports from a couple of last week’s guests indicated that the hexes were indeed coming off, but right at dark, with the preponderance of the activity in the pitch darkness. A great headlamp and amazing sensory abilities would be needed to fish in those conditions.

Is hatching this late in the day a survival response by the hexagenia, to ensure that many of them make it to procreate again? Just one of my theories. In years past, I remember seeing hexes as early as 7 PM, sporadically at first, and then building in to a crescendo of activity as daylight ended. It seems that this year there is very little happening prior to 9 PM or so, and then the majority of the hatch activity happens.

Hopefully I can get out there once myself to see what’s happening. With two young German Shorthaired Pointer puppies to train, there hasn’t been an abundance of time to go fishing, and it seems like we’ve been going on an endless amount of walks lately. Guess I’ll rely on the reports of others this year!