Saturday morning Bret and I went to fish some spring creeks south of the Wisconsin River in the Driftless Area hoping for enough sunshine to get some caddis active and find some fish in a frenzy, but really any trout on any fly would do. It’s just that in the last five years the most productive hatches I have ever fished have been from late April through May when the air really starts warming up. Once the grey, spring overcast cracks open to let in some warm sunshine caddis start popping and dozens of trout in each riffle go airborne chasing the emerging flies. During our three hour drive we had plenty of time to discuss our approach for the day… what creek, bridge, flies, and how the weather would play out. All the while I couldn’t get images from past caddis hatches out of my head. I knew that the weather that day called for mostly clouds and was considerably cool for May, but I still had hope that if the sun came out so would the caddis. After several hours of getting a fish here and there on nymphs and streamers I saw the unmistakable “caddis” rise, than another… I was able to make the switch to a deer hair caddis pattern and get two strikes and landed one of the fish. Just as I thought it was about to hit the fan some clouds rolled in and shut it down. The remainder of the afternoon was the same story… Sun would come out, a few bugs would start to show followed by a few rises, and then shut down again by a huge cloud. I however was more than happy with how the day panned out, and left knowing when I return on a sunny day its on like donkey kong!
