Tips for fishing a caddis hatch

[krayfish2]

Jeffk beat me to it. A brush hatch of caddis might fill the air but if none of them are on the water....it's nothing more than something cool to see. I was also going to give the march brown spinner flight as an example.

One thing I would say you might want to keep an eye out for is swarm after swarm flying upriver past you. No risers and the 30 minutes later, the pool is boiling with rises but zero bugs in the air. Good chance the swarms went but you to the riffs upstream, did their thing and fell spent. You're a few hundred yards below that egg laying flight and the food conveyor brings them right to you. Search the film closely as spent caddis often lay very flush and are hard to see.

 

[PALongbow]

Fishing dry caddis on Fishing Creek is not highly productive. Fish a caddis emerger with fluorocarbon leader just under the surface with or without split shot and you will find the fishing to be much more productive. I have been pounding fish on my property in Benton on caddis emergers. If you see the fish exploding on top the water more than likely they are chasing emergers to the top of the water. I seldom fish dry caddis on Fishing Creek but when I do its not a elk hair caddis....they see a lot of them from fisherman especially in areas that are well fished.

Ron

 

[duckfoot]

PALongbow wrote:
Fishing dry caddis on Fishing Creek is not highly productive. Fish a caddis emerger with fluorocarbon leader just under the surface with or without split shot and you will find the fishing to be much more productive. I have been pounding fish on my property in Benton on caddis emergers. If you see the fish exploding on top the water more than likely they are chasing emergers to the top of the water. I seldom fish dry caddis on Fishing Creek but when I do its not a elk hair caddis....they see a lot of them from fisherman especially in areas that are well fished.
Ron

Completely agree. These fish are a bit smarter than average, even when they are freshly stocked by the club. Sometimes, ya gotta do something different.

 

[PALongbow]

Water is so clear on Fishing Creek that everything needs to be right. Like you said even the stocked fish are picky to some extent.

If you want to see dry fly action with a caddis just pull it across the water and you will see fish take your dry caddis. Using a dead drift doesn't work so well.

Ron

 

[dc410]

This has been a very interesting thread to read through. I just have a ton of stuff flying around in my head right now that I just can't wait to try out.