The Caddis Hatch

The caddis hatch wasn’t as prolific as last week but you could still see clouds of caddis here and there. You can watch them clumsily dance on the water laying their eggs. There were a few fish rising indicating the fish were actively feeding although the risers seemed to be the smaller trout. I tied on a couple of emerging caddis imitations with simulated wings and a trailing shuck.

I hurried downstream a mile or two so I could work my way back fishing upstream. Catching a fish on the first cast gave me a clue it would be a great evening. This was quite a different experience from the streamer fishing I did last week. After catching a few whitefish, including a large 18 incher, I hooked the brown I was looking for. It immediately jumped into the air. While it jumped I loosened the tension on the line slightly so if the fish landed on the line, the line wouldn’t break. The brown measured 19 inches long.

I worked my way up to the next hole, fishing promising places but without luck. At this point I had noticed that the sun came out, no wonder. The next hole I reached was formed by a bend in the river. I didn’t catch anything through the deeper section, but as I fished the top of the pool where the shallow water became deep, I hooked another large brown. It measured 19 and a half inches long. Hooking this brown in the shallow portion right before the river turned deep reminded me of a previous brown from the “Streamer Fishing in the Riffles” blog. I will have to remember to pay particular attention to the shallow portion of rivers right as the water starts to become deep.

As I left the river, a group of sheep came over to greet me. I had seen the farmer feeding them earlier. The youngest lambs of the group followed me all the way to the fence where I climbed the ladder over the fence and said goodbye.