Caddis Season Approaching!!!!

With Caddis season right around the corner ive been in search of some of the best patterns out there. Im hearing and seeing good results from a Caddis by Mike Lawson that im really excited to fish soon. Its called the "Electric Caddis". Ive tied it up in a light olive in sizes 16 and 18. I would love to hear from others on color. Im sure that a tan color is going to work similar to a "Chamois Caddis" and i have had success in the past with my Brother on a rust colored caddis. Here are some photos, It sure is a good looking bug. Im one of those guys who cant fish a bug with confidence if it first doesnt look good to me. This Caddis had been doing it for Lawson on the Henrys Fork of the Snake for years. Its got to be good enough for me.

RL Softhacke

Hook: 8-14 gold bead

Thread: Olive or Natural

Wire: Gold

Dubbing: Olive or natural

Hackle: Partridge

Rubber Legs: Brown or Green

I have pretty much gotten to where all i fish are SoftHackes, Especially big ones in late winter and spring. Our last trip out Matt Guymon hooked me up with a rubber leg natural Hairsear and it worked great. So i decided to come up with a pettern that would incorporate the rubber legs and the SoftHacke. Hear it is, im sure it will be hookup special.

SoftHacke Goden Stone

Hook #8-10, gold bead

black 6/0 thread

Body: 1/2 hairs ear, 12 golden dubbing mix together

Thin skin natural for back

wire: sm gold

Partridge hackle, Dark

Ive worked a lot of fish on this fly this season and have had great success with it, its seems to be just as effective without the thin skin back. Definantly a spring special. The fly works great in just the hairs ear color as well.

"Montana" need i say more!

Early april would not be the first choice of many for a fishing trip to montana. However we are not most people. In this instance we were well rewarded for our sacrifices. The first day we fished the Madison below Ennis, this area is known as the bear trap. As drove in the snow was coming down pretty good and the temp was about 27 big ones. The raod going in was covered with snow and a nice step drop into the river was all that would greet you to the left, so we stayed right. The fishing was hot immediatly with bows and brown taking black angus midges, just a black midge with tinsel wraped with the wire. Randy, my brother, landed what the locals have said is a real trophy of a rainbow for that section, it went 20-20 inches. The second day was much different. We showed up just below Hebgen dam at about 10am, The temp was 17 degrees, cold. We entered the river and immediatly we were hooking up. The first fish landed was mine, a beautful bow on the San Juan. That turned out to be the king of the day. All told im sure we landed better than 50 bows, 90% on the San Juan, many of which were as beautiful as you will ever see. The trip was a great one. It was Matts first to Montana. Matt is our Fly Fishing mentor so it was a great honor to take him on his first Montana trip. The Madison is a beautiful river, but we are lucky here in Utah to have some excellent waters that on any given day will produce with the best of them.

Fighting Fatties on the Fork

We hit the South Fork of the Ogden today and it was excellent. From San Juan Worms to Natural Hairs Ears the trout were loving both. The snow was falling and it was chilly so there wasnt much of a hatch to speak of, a few bwos and midge. I was able to take an 18 inch brown which is a nice fish on that river. We have allready lost most of our rivers to run off, I hope we can get out a few more times before all is lost. Check out the Stonefly Nymph on the back of that brown and that bwo wiggled out of his nymph case right below as i was taking a break. The orange and red colors on these fish were awsome, there must be something in the water because even the whitteys are orange, pretty cool. Check out those cutts.