Importance of Caddis Flies to us.

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

Let me be clear. I probably use various stages of caddis fly imitations more than I do mayflies. I probably fish some stage of the caddis fly much more often than I do mayflies. Obviously, what I use depends upon what is happening on the water. If there is a good mayfly hatch in progress, I use matching mayflies. But, if there is not a mayfly/stonefly hatch in progress, I usually turn to some stage of the near-ubiquitous caddis.

I have mentioned here, in the past, that the caddis fly, I believe, has historically been underrated by early fly fishermen in the US. Some of the oldest books on fly fishing I have suggested that the caddis fly is not very important to the fly fisherman…particularly compared to mayflies.

Anyway, I was re-reading a couple books recently and came across a couple statements which I believe are absolutely wrong, but do reflect some of the earlier thinking amongst some, I believe.

First, a quote from a chapter in a book entitled “Masters on the Nymph”, which is a book of “articles” by many famous fly fishers. The book was edited by J. Michael Migel and Leonard M. Wright, Jr. and was published in 1979. In the book, one of the contributors is the duo of Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi who are a couple of my heroes.

The quote on page 44:

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T](http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/byhaugh/media/Mobile Uploads/404f208e-ef49-4d46-b077-8c18255b39ed_zpst2qy0ppf.jpg.html)he book itself:

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Then, there is this quote from the book “A Book of Trout Flies” by Preston Jennings, published in 1970, in which he states, on page 8:

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2

On the rare times I trout fish I always start with a caddis.
Read someplace that caddis hatch all through the day so fish look for them.

Rick

3

I would agree with your thoughts. My experience has been that an Elk-Hair caddis, while not always the best pattern for a given setting, will nearly always catch fish regardless. And throughout the day. That tells me the adults are a steady part of their diet, and they know them quite well.

4

My local river is a caddis river
About the time that the river drops to a comfortable wading depth, the alder flies (actually zebra caddis, not true alderflies) are emerging.
Green Drakes and BWOs are both available to the trout at the same time but the fish could care less. I’ve never seen one taken.
These trout are only interested in the caddis.
Fishing a dry is usually a waste of time when this hatch is on, it’s always the emergers or egg laying divers that draw interest

5

I think that was Gary LaFontaine that said that about the caddis always being available because they drift around all the time.

6

I think Gary is the author that Caucci and Nastasi were referring to when they said: “…should be aware of the recent exaggerated importance of caddis flies in the trouts’ diet”

And, if you read Gary’s book “Caddisflies” you will find that he too says that the caddis fly has historically been underrated by fly fishermen which is the point I was trying to make. It’s hard for us, now, to understand that during the first 75 years or so of fly fishing history in the US, the caddis fly was so underrated, but I believe it was!

7

Considering that I cannot tell what the trout are taking my nymphs for, very hard to say which is more important when fishing subsurface. When on top, clearly mayflies are more important, which is different than saying caddis are unimportant.

8

Fished the Gunnison one spring during some excellent caddis hatches, several dozen fish a day on dries fished against the banks, river pretty much to myself.

And then one day there were salmonflies everywhere. So I dug out that box, caught a bunch of fish, had fun.

Next day, showed up to the river, people everywhere. Word had got out. And they were all fishing salmonflies, and nobody was catching fish on them. As trout rose to caddis around them. In the spaces between other anglers, I fished the same caddis I had been using two days prior, and was catching fish just fine.

If the trout want to eat caddis, feed them caddis. If not, use what they want to eat. I try not to make it any harder than that.

DG

9

I could not agree more Dennis.
Brad

10

Great idea. It’s determining what they want that is the never-ending challenge.

11

I find it hard to even believe that Leonard Wright would have allowed that in the book, given that he’s probably best remembered for advocating giving his Fluttering Caddis a “sudden inch” of movement. In fact, I sort of believe one of the contributors is directly challenging him on the subject, not LaFontaine, since Caddisflies hadn’t been published yet.

As to the importance of caddisflies, I think they’re probably just as important as mayflies; it’s just that it’s easier to tell one mayfly from another at a glance, so we obsess more over them. And of course, it varies from river to river and time to time.

I will point out, however, that just because we use an Elk Hair “Caddis” and catch a bunch of fish, doesn’t mean that the fish were taking them as caddis flies. I’ve had some very memorable evenings fishing an X-caddis over a sulfur hatch/spinner fall. (There’s really not much difference between an X-caddis and a Sparkle Dun.) An EHC could reasonably represent a number of different terrestrials (like a small hopper, e.g.) They’re pretty generic flies, and caddis are just one thing they can represent.

I do agree with Byron that caddis were under-estimated in the past.

12

Redietz,
Very interesting post. I think Gary had published articles about caddis flies before his book was published. Could be wrong, but I think his ideas were publicized before he wrote the book Caddisflies.
Would appreciate information about this from some who know the dates of Gary’s writings.

By the way Redietz, here is an interesting question and answer with Gary Lafontaine by Weber State College (Now University?) which was published on the internet…

Do you think caddisflies are still an underutilized group of insects, or do you think people are aware of how valuable they are?
I think there’s been an amazing amount of education going on since Caddisflies was written. You cannot realize how far in the dark ages people were about caddisflies before that book was written. We took scuba gear, went underwater, and were the ones who actually realized what was happening with emerging caddisflies. We saw the bright air bubbles created by the caddisfly and discovered the Antron that would match that insect. We developed the emerging sparkle pupa of the diving caddis.

13

Yeah, I’m pretty sure as well that Gary L. had published on the subject, but Wright’s 1972 book, Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect, really brought the subject into the foreground.

I’ve seen the quote from LaFontaine before. I’m not trying to take anything away from him; it was a giant leap forward.

14

How many times have you seen caddis on the surface of the water? Usually I see the shucks and realize the fish are eating caddis. I fish the Catskills and I find it kind of strange, but some years caddis seem as important as mayflies then I’ll go 2 or 3 years without hardly ever using one especially early in the season. Later in the fall caddis seem to be more consistent and I’ll fish a tan, brown and of course the October caddis. Eric Leiser and Larry Solomon said in the Caddis and the Angler that a gentleman named Ernie Maltz had it figured out on the Beaverkill in the 60’s. Not sure if he had specific caddis imitations other than a Henryville Special, or twitched other flies to imitate the caddis.

Gene

15

I agree, I’ve never seen many caddis on the surface other than emergers, on or near it. In PA, shades of olive, tan, brown are pretty much what you need in the Fall, at least where I fish.

16

Of course LaFontaine and others stressed the importance of the pupal stage of the caddis…much more than the adult stage.
Where you fish, when you turn rocks over do you find cased caddis?

Where I usually fish, you rarely see adult caddis on the water. But, there are millions and millions of cased caddis underneath the rocks. Fishing a pupal imitation works well. And, I often use an adult caddis when there is nothing hatching as sort of a searching pattern and often get those “tell tale” slashing strikes.

17

Almost never just cast a dry if no fish are actively feeding. I will fish nymphs at that time, and yes one will be a caddis imitation of some sort.

18

My favorite caddis dry imitations are the X Caddis, the Iris Caddis, and this one…supposed to be an X2 Caddis.

I find that, during the time of year in which caddis are actively hatching, the fish tend to remember them…whether a hatch is in progress…whether females are returning to lay eggs…or not.

I have found they will often strike a dry caddis as opportunist as they are in their feeding.

19

No you’re right, an EHC is not definitive in itself. And an x-caddis can easily be taken as a mayfly emerger or cripple. But an EHC provides a distinct downwing profile, leading me to think it is taken predominantly as a spent or fluttering caddis. It could just as well be taken as a general tan moth as well. Who’s to say the only moth like bug they eat is a caddis fly? :wink:

20

The trailing shuck on an X caddis, the X2 Caddis, or others was developed by Craig Matthews and John Juracek when they noticed crippled caddis with a glistening trailing shuck.
The trailing shuck (not on an EHC) was added to offer the trout the “trigger” of a caddis which wasn’t able to cleanly leave its pupal shuck…thus an inviting target. Made important due to the fact that non-crippled caddis, unlike mayflies, exit the surface so quickly as not to offer much of a target to the trout in feeding. This is why you see the slashing rises to Caddis as opposed to sipping strikes with mayflies which are on the surface floating so long after emergence while drying their wings.