"I Can't See Outta My Windshield!"

Top photo courtesy of Sean Hudson, others courtesy of Kirk Webb

The annual Mothers Day Caddis hatch is here! Currently, this massive wave of bugs are being seen from Rifle all the up to El Jebel. Water visibility is superb on the Roaring Fork (even below the Crystal River) with the Colorado River having about 18" inches to 30" inches of viz just depending on the day. Even if the rivers have 6" inches of visibility the fish won't have any trouble looking up to eat your dry simply due to the huge masses of insects hatching.

The Goods-

Look for the hatch to begin around 11:30 to noon and last till 3 or 4pm. After mating, egg laying caddis return to the river in the last hour of light which provides equally exciting dry fly fishing opportunities. The best hatches will take place on the hottest days. Timing these heat waves can be a bit tough. If it's too hot for a long string of days the river (especially below the confluence of the Crystal River) has the potential to blow out and become too muddy to be fishable. When this happens the river above the Crystal can have as much as two feet or more of water visibility than the lower river. The current weather forecast looks ideal for this next week...-fyi-....cool overnight temps and warm daily highs.

The Rigs-

Tandem dry fly rigs consisting of Stimi's and Pearl&Elk Caddis fished on 4x tippets. You'll catch fish dead drifting but you'll do more damage out there by skittering or skating your flies. I prefer to call our technique more of a "bumping" or "soft-skate" technique. Bring plenty of floatant....you'll need it. We're big on double dosing our flies and treating them with Silicone Mucilin followed by a dose of Dry Shake or Frogs Fanny.

When nymphing prior to the hatch or during late afternoons look to Cat Poops or other stonefly nymphs fished as your lead/point fly trailed by various #16-18 Caddis Pupa patterns like Yuba Pupas, Deep 6 Caddis or Z-Wings. Smaller attractor patterns such as Princes, 20Inchers, and San Juan Worms are fishing well also.

Obviously dry/dropper techniques will fish well too especially during the front end of the days hatch. Soft hackle patterns like a Soft Hackle PT or a Soft Hackle Peacock are often killer dropper flies.

The Current Caddis Hot Spots-

Glenwood Springs - There's more caddis here than anywhere. That can be good and can be bad. If there's too many caddis the fishing can be a bit tough...aka the fish are just downright full and there's too many bugs. Hit up Two Rivers Park, Big Johns and the New Castle Bridge on the Colorado. On the Fork be sure to try 7th St Bridge, Veltus Park, Sunlight Bridge and 3 Mile Creek.

Bonedale'- Hit the Bury Lease, Sutank, Bonedale Boat Ramp, and Catherine's Store. Lighter numbers of caddis are up here though that can work to your advantage as we've already discussed.