mother's day caddis

While the boy and I are away on a weekend road trip headhunting on the Juan (booya!), thought this might get your blood pumping RE: upcoming season on our doorstep. From Bill Edrington's Royal Gorge Angler's newsletter:

With the Blue Wings in the mix, next comes the annual event that many label the "Mother's Day Hatch" and as you know by now, it is a "Tax Day Hatch" that begins around April 15 or so. I have next Thursday at 3PM in the shop pool. That should be good but my gambling skills being what they are, I could still screw up. The hatch always begins around the Canon City/Parkdale area, but because of low water, it could appear over the entire 30 mile stretch up to Texas Creek on the first few days. It would not surprise me if it did. I suspect that you will see good hatches in Salida by the 20th. Caddis cases are not closed in the Canon City area today, so it could be a little longer. Since these little bugs are aquatic moths, they will spin a silk like closure on the cases' open end in order to trap heat and pupate. This process usually takes only about 5 days, but if cold weather sets in after the closures, it could take much longer. The bottom line is that they will eventually hatch when they build up enough thermal units to do so and not before. Water reaching into the mid fifties temperature ranges will generally do the trick.

When Caddis hatch, you will see fish up on the adults for the first few days, but as the hatch matures, they focus on the Pupae. That’s why you should have the Larva, Pupa (more of these than anything), the adult, the egglayer and the spent with you for a full day's fishing. As the hatch goes on and on, through the month, the fish really move to the pupae and the egglayers. They take less effort to eat than the adults, which fly away pretty quickly. We'll keep you posted through the hatch with short newsletters that are to the point and will allow you to follow the hatch up the river. For daily and sometimes twice daily reports, refer to our river reports on our website at http://www.royalgorgeanglers.com ... We'll keep it all current so you can have a better time.....after all that's what this is all about.

Bill's The Man on the Ark, don't take my word for it. I appreciate his efforts via blog, website, newsletters gettin The Word out helping traveling anglers target his hatch on this distant river. This year I aim to be geared-up ready to hit the road the moment that 'just-right' report comes in, just as long as it's the weekend of 4/24 ;-)

Fishing the caddis on the Arkansas can be a bit of a spectacle, but that's exactly what I love about it- it is a festival of sorts: of spring, of trout, of fly fishing in general. Makes for a great road trip to open the season, my drive up is always full of anticipation of the possibilities about to unfold. And the fishing is usually great: you arrive too early- no matter, fish the baetis. Arrive late- target the egg layers late in the PM. Weather all over the dial- fish tandem #18 BHFBPT and #16 Pulsating Caddis

It's looking like our Rio Grande caddis hatch will get blown out by runoff already bustin' down the gorge, making the Ark a must-do this year. Meeting my Dad up there, hopefully big bro too. Can't wait!

But in the meantime, time for some Jedi training the boy on the Juan. May the Force be with us!