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Two years ago we did a full episode on Hatches. That discussion was a broad, overarching look at how the bugs — the insects that trout eat — dictate many of the habits of trout. We argued that knowing the hatches, following the emergence and being ready for these events is not only a lot of fun, it drastically improves your success on the water. Trout don’t miss the hatches, and neither should we.
At the same time, none of us here think the pattern matters all that much — usually. While we’ll all admit that a color change or certainly fly size can make a big difference, we all agree that what a trout eats most frequently is a great presentation.
This episode is about those presentations.
We consider the full life cycle of a caddis: the pre-hatch, the emergence, the egg laying phase and death. And at each of those stages, we ask what the bugs are doing, how the trout respond and how we can imitate the bugs to full a trout.
Resources
BOOK: Gary Lafontaine | Caddisflies
READ: MIDCURRENT | Anticipating a Caddis Hatch
READ: Troutbitten | Canyon Caddis
READ: Troutbitten | Fish Hard
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Hatches and Strategies
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Season Eleven of the Troutbitten Podcast continues next week with episode three. So look for that in your Troutbitten podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Liking this conversation quite a bit gang. Just fished through several caddis hatches over the last few days, so I inadvertently “read the study material before class.” One thing to add to your discussion of the “swing” and why it works dovetails nicely with something I see a lot on the Deschutes here in Oregon. Normally, you wouldn’t want to leave your fly in the water as you move positions, but I’ve found that if I fish downriver and leave my fly in the water where it ends its “natural” swing, that moment of slack and unstructured movement looks like a caddis struggling to surface. Not only that, but that action on my part allows the fly to HOLD IN (almost) ONE PLACE as you described in this pod. This is most effective with soft hackles (which I almost have on) and/or with a Lafontaine sparkle pupa. Both work deep, mid-column, just below the surface or even right in the film- depending on the hatch stage. The most important thing is to hold your rod tightly as you step down because there’s a good chance you’ll hook up mid-stride. Anyway, “good stuff”, Dom!
Correction- which I almost ALWAYS have on
One more thing, years ago when my local library finally moved Lafontaine’s book to the rare book room (probably because I checked it out 8 or 9 times in a row) I found that I could check it out for free the Internet Archive :
https://archive.org/details/caddisflies0000gary
Good looking out! I was about to buy this book for $160 when I seen your post. Thanks!
Perhaps the only thing more impressive than all the great information conveyed by this podcast is the intelligence of the conversation. It’s nice to hear a group of curious and agile minds at work.