The Caddis Hatch on the Lower Madison 2020 is On

Caddis are just starting to get rolling with some significance on the lower Madison River here the last couple of days. The fish, for the most part, haven’t gotten on the dries yet – but that will change very quickly with the warm weather for the remainder of the week. As most of the other rivers in the area, like the Gallatin, East Gallatin, Jefferson, and Yellowstone are all slowly rising and getting dirty – the Madison is the main attractions right now.

The Mother’s Day Caddis hatch gets its name from its timing – which means that the bugs always start to show around Mother’s Day. These dark olive-bodied Caddis start emerging from their pupal cases once the water temperature stabilized in the lower 50’s for a few days. The significant attribute of the hatch is the shear biomass of insects on the water at any one time during the peak of the emergences. This is one of western fly-fishing’s greatest spectacles and can also offer some really fun dry fly fishing during the peak hatch cycles.

Caddis spend most of their lifecycle in the larval stage, hiding under rocks and grazing on detritus, algae, and vegetation. As a larva, their appearance is similar to a small mealworm and can come in a variety of colors ranging from transparent to bright green. The transformation from the larva stage to the adult stage – the flying insects we see above and, on the water, – occurs after the larva build sits “cocoon” of tiny rocks, detritus or even webbing. In fisherman’s language, the insect emerges from this cocoon a week or two later, rapidly swims up through the water column and emerges on the surface as the adult.

Trout tend to key in on the pupa during the early part of the hatch event as the insect are particularly vulnerable and active as they swim from the water to emerge from their pupa “shucks”. As they swim through the water column, Caddis are known to move very quickly, creating motion and bubble trails along the way. Oftentimes, during a Caddis hatch, the angler will see “splashy rises” created by a Trout’s tail breaking the surface as it chases Caddis Pupa below the surface. Once the Adults start to get on the water in good numbers, an angler can expect to find slow-rising trout on current seams throughout the river.

Fly-fishing the Mother’s Day Caddis Hatch on the lower Madison, just outside of Bozeman, offers plenty of opportunities for anglers of all skill levels. The more traditional angler will look forward to slowly swinging some of Sylvester Neme’s classis patterns like a Partridge and Peacock down and across likely holding water for feeding trout. The dry fly angler can sit on the bank and wait for the slow rises of steadily feeding trout when the evening shadows come over the river. Anglers can find fish feeding on larva and pupa patterns throughout the day using standard indicator nymph rigs or dry dropper rigs with a large Caddis followed by a small bead head caddis pattern too.

The hatch won’t be fishabel for too long this year with higher water just around the bend – that could be misguided direction as the forecast is for cold weather early next week – which could stall the hatch and ultimately give us another week or two of great fishing on the river.

Fins & Feathers is now open to in-store traffic and we are also offering free curbside pickup for internet and phone orders. Internet orders are much easier for us to process right now as we are operating with a smaller staff to make social distancing more practical in our space. We are open from 9:30 – 4:30 for walk-in traffic and offer curbside pickup starting at 8:30 am. Our Caddis selection is well-stocked as we are focused on making it easy to come in and quickly find the bugs you need to get on the water. We also have made it easy to find your flies and basics online – we even have a web section dedicated just to the Caddis Hatch. Order ahead and pick them up at your convenience on your way to the river.

Thank you for all of your support and have a great time enjoying the Mother’s Day Caddis Hatch of 2020 on the lower Madison River.