Mother's day caddis are hatching in SW Montana...perhaps as much as two weeks early.
Been hatching for a week already. Saw a humming bird today. 37 years in Montana and that was a first too.
The best way to catch a lot of fish during the MD caddis hatch is to use a soft hackle wet fly behind a bobber of some kind. But dry flies are more fun. Easier too. See it. Strike it.
I'm not sure how important it is. But real caddis flies sit flat and low to the water. Al Troth's Elk Hair Caddis has been everybody's Montana goto caddis for half a lifetime now. I'm not going to argue the following fly will attract more strikes. But I will argue its flat and low-to-the-water profile is more realistic.
Two materials: Zelon wing and grizzly hackle. The Zelon is two colors though. I layer one tuft of bright almost white Zelon on top of dull gray. That way the fly looks gray from below, but bright white from above.