Mother’s Day Caddis

May 16, 2023

May 12th, 2023

It’s been a long-awaited hatch season here in southwest Montana. The long winters can be hard to bear and I don’t blame the people who leave for warmer weather states during these months. Though a few days through the winter can be hard, the few months of sunburns, bugs, and wet wading mean so much more after a long winter.

The Mother’s Day caddis hatch is the start of the summer fishing season we all look forward to every year, and today was the perfect start to the early summer season for 2023.

I was lucky enough to find time to fish after work today, with little expectations. I knew the Mother’s Day caddis could be coming off, but it can be a hard hatch to time on some rivers in the area. It coincides with runoff on many streams in the region. There are days when the caddis are thick on the water but hard to find fish rising with off-color water and high flows. With this in mind and mixed reports from fellow anglers throughout the week, I was just grateful to get out and find out for myself.

I pulled up to a slow flat where I found many fish rising to midges this last winter. Caddis were everywhere.

It’s hard to describe the excitement of arriving at a trout stream with bugs filling the air. I stalked the bank slowly before rigging my rod, and after seeing a few rises tight to the bank I ran back and rigged up with overwhelming anticipation. Few things in this world make me feel like a kid again, but the first 15 minutes of arriving to fish a river make me feel alive in a way I can’t describe.

This anticipation is often the best part of any fishing trip or day on the water. Once you start fishing you get a sense of how the fishing will go. The allure of the unknown slowly vanishes along with that initial excitement.

I decided to wet wade for the first time in 2023. I knew the water would be cold and it was probably a little early but there is nothing like the freedom I feel when wet wading a trout stream with trout rising. I walked down the road a ways to make my way back to the truck as the sun went over the mountain. A tactic I often use when I feel the evening hatch on a specific piece of water will be good and want to save the good water for the prime evening hatch hours.

I started fishing with swarms of caddis fluttering the river. Clouds covered the sun and gave the trout confidence to rise to the many caddis bouncing on the water. There weren’t as many fish rising as one would expect with the many bugs on the water, but I wasn’t going to fish a nymph during a hatch this strong.

I fished a size 14 x-caddis with a sparkle pupa 6 inches dropped below. Two legendary caddis patterns. I hooked three fish in the beginning. Two on the dry fly, one on the pupa. It had been almost two weeks since my last day fishing, so I had to work through some kinks. I dropped two of the three fish I fooled, but a fat 10-inch rainbow on the dry fly was a great way to start the evening.

The one I lost on the sparkle pupa was a very nice fish, and it hurt to drop him so quickly after the hookset. I worked my way up the bank looking for another chance, but I did not find any more rising fish. A few factors were at play. The bank I fished was faster water, with a few obstructions that created slower slicks tight to the bank. I thought fish would be rising here, but come to find out it still may have been too quick for spring caddis. The sun also came out and in my experience, this is bad news for spring dry fly fishing.

The next hour or two was relatively uneventful. Not many fish rising and a tough glare made it difficult for me to fool any fish on the dry fly. I took a little break and ate a snack while I waited for the evening bite, hoping it would bring more fish to the surface.

Sure enough, the sun went down and the flat I was saving for the evening came alive. Fish started exploding on the surface eating egg-laying caddis and it provided some stellar dry fly fishing. I might have moved 20ft in an hour with many opportunities to fish feeding on the surface. It was an absolute blast.

To top it off the Montana sunset was stunning. A great distraction and reason to look up to take a breather at the end of the night. Big Sky country has a special place in my heart.

Overall, an outstanding evening of dry fly fishing I was grateful to have. This has been a tough year for my fiance and I, so any day I get to be on the water this season will be a blessing. Fly fishing is and forever will be so much more than catching fish.

My Setup

The dry fly rod was out and dry fly leaders getting fine-tuned. I fished my 9ft 5wt Helios 3F with a 5wt trout taper Scientific Anglers weight forward fly line. I had a 10 ft leader that tapered down to 5x tippet. It used to be a 12 ft leader down to 5x, but after many outings, it’s been broken and added to trying to match the fishing conditions. Not much science behind it, mainly just guessing and fishing. The x-caddis was the only dry fly I fished, and I put on a size 16 olive sparkle pupa on a 6-inch dropper off the bend of the hook. I used 5x for the dropper tippet.

What I Learned

During this evening outing, I learned the effectiveness of the x-caddis. I have always been a sucker for any fly tied by Craig Mathews. He is truly a legend in our area and accounts for some of the most effective flies in the Greater Yellowstone region.

The x-caddis is a fly I have not fished much over the years as I have had my struggles tying with elk hair. This winter I whipped a few up that I felt confident enough to fish and was very impressed. I was surprised to fish one fly the whole evening and it stayed afloat even after many fish. The fly sat level in the water like many of the caddis I saw floating down the river and was easy to see with the bleached elk hair. It’s also a quick fly to tie once you get the hang of it.

I highly recommend the x-caddis for your caddis hatches this year as it is a fly I’m excited to fish throughout the season.

What Left Me Curious?

Why do the fish stop rising when the clouds go away? It has baffled me the number of times in the spring that fish stop rising when the sun peers through the clouds.

Whether it be spring midges, baetis, or caddis, fish seem to feel much more comfortable feeding on the surface with cloudy conditions. Yes, this sometimes has to do with there being more bugs on the water on overcast days, as blue-wing hatches are better the worse the weather. But I’m talking about when I’m fishing a solid hatch of bugs under the clouds, the sun comes out for 15 minutes, fish stop rising, then when clouds roll back over fish come out to play again. No change in bugs on the water. It’s a phenomenon I’ve seen play out many times over the last few years and is almost predictable.

I’d love to hear your theories or stories about when this has happened to you. It’s crazy to see so let me know what you think