I have witnessed what I call the “Reverse Hatch” of the caddis for many, many years. These are the female caddis who have returned to the water to oviposit their eggs beneath the surface and then rise back to the surface and fly away. I think this “reverse hatch” is what is often thought to be an actual hatch.
In trying to determine whether or not the Gary Lafontaine observance of gas bubbles in the ascending caddis pupa are real (Many current authors dispute his conclusion), I found this quote from Gary Borger back in 2010:
“The insects seen with a shining bubble appearance that pop to the surface and “hatch” in an instant are caddis females returning from egg laying. They dive or crawl to the bottom and lay eggs directly on the bottom (see Caddisflies in the archives). They carry an air bubble with them so they don?t drown, and when done, they swim to the top (assisted by the buoyancy of the air bubble; the air bubble bursts, and the adult flies off”
It is so odd to me that we don’t seem to have conclusive, definitive proof in this day and age of such a relatively simple natural phenomenum as this…
Ralph Cutter reports that he uses a Bird’s Nest to imitate the female Glossosoma and further discusses the retention of air bubbles demonstrated during the process of the female diving subsurface and returning…
http://www.flyline.com/entomology/glossosoma_caddisflies/
Craig Matthews also designed a Glossosoma pattern, for use on the Madison, to imitate the diving female, which doesn’t look anything like any of the other diving patterns. It has caught a lot of good fish up there and on the East Walker River here in CA for me… It is listed here as the TBT with recipe:
Listed here are a bunch of the variants on the Bird’s Nest that I use. I touch all of the patterns up with Frog’s Fanny before they hit the water…the old Ed Story trick](http://stevenojai.tripod.com/scubacad.htm)http://stevenojai.tripod.com/birdnest.htm
BTW, all of this can be quite confusing, since the emergence of Caddis can coincide with the females returning to lay their eggs subsurface. That’s why I prefer to fish with my kids and spread a few patterns between the lot of us…usually, we get it figured out on what the Trout are keying on…
There was a recent thread on another board about this subject. I hope it’s OK to quote Ralph Cutter from that thread. He said “… in fact have witnessed many hundreds of caddisfly pharate adults generate air underneath their cuticle in both rivers and lakes.” Ralph’s and Gary’s observations are good enough for me to believe that Caddis pupa do generate a gas bubble that can be imitated by the Sparkle pupa patterns and other patterns. That’s not to say that these patterns can’t also imitate a diving caddis.
Gary LaFontaine is one of my favorite authors and tiers. I have some of his framed flies and have had the pleasure of watching him tie and talking to him.
It seems so odd to me that there are respected fly officianandos and authors who have strong, yet opposite views on the subject of rising caddis pupa having a gas bubble to assist in their ascent.
Seems so odd that there is not indisputable scientific agreement on the subject!
I raised insects at one point in a large fish tank and watched them mature and hatch. Unfortunately, they were mayflies and stoneflies with no caddis flies.
On the same general subject on a different forum site, a highly respected insect “expert” proclaimed that Gary’s gas bubble in hatching pupa had been “generally debunked” or a similar phrase…
Personally, I think air bubble entrapment by wet flies might work regardless of any scientific conclusion on the subject.
I go with the guys who actually donned scuba gear and got “down and dirty” with the Trout. That would be Gary and Ralph. I also believe that John Barr is no dummy and that’s why his Graphic Caddis is so effective…That forum has a bunch of armchair “experts”, most of whom, I take with a grain of salt…
So, clarify something for me…is the question whether or not ascending pupa create an air bubble as well as an egg laying female? Or whether the two can occur during the same time periods?
I would say I’m of the mind that yes they rise with entrapped air, but from what I’ve seen and read, they swim up, not pulled up by the air bubble. To be honest though. on the other question, I fish the hatch like I find it. Don’t think too deeply into it.
Slowly re-read Chapter 2, “Creating the Effective Pattern”, ppgs. 21- 68…in GLF’s Caddisflies…there is a lot of good stuff in there that, prior to this thread, I seemed to have overlooked…
Agree with you. Never understood folks who don’t read the classics written about their passion. Although Gary did not like that particular book of his.
