Saturday, September 26, 2015

October Caddis

As the temperature cools  down at the beginning of fall, the trout fishing heats up on many Northwest rivers. The chief catalyst behind this late season feeding goes by many names. The giant orange sedge, Fall Caddis, Giant Caddis, the most recognized being the October Caddis. Many regard this hatch very highly as the sheer size of these Caddis drive trout into a feeding frenzy similar a salmon fly, or Hexagenia.


The larvae of the October Caddis are stream dwellers that construct cases out of loose sand, gravel, and other organic streambed material. As they outgrow their cases they willdiscard them and build a new one. As the larvae reaches maturity it will seal its case and pupate. When the pupae emerge typically they will crawl or swim into shallow water near the bank or the bank itself for emergence, but a few of the pupae also will emerge midstream. The pupal shuck enveloping the Caddis pupa is air filled and when exposed to the decreased outside pressure of air bursts, allowing the adult insect to crawl out of the shuck. Emergence is typically a late afternoon and evening affair.

 Once emerged and in their final adult form the Caddis are generally 20-30 mm long. The fat bodies of winged adults are in colors that range from light tanish orange to yellowish orange to bright orange to burnt orange. Wings are usually gray but there are also brown tones. There are apparently a number of different sub-species in what is commonly called October Caddis.  Most belong to the family Dicosmoecus and they range from California to Alaska. Egg laying or oviposting occurs in the evening. Large females will flit across the surface briefly making contact every few seconds to deposit her eggs.

These provide some of the last productive big bug dry fly fishing before most rivers close for the season or become too cold for any real surface activity. For those anglers who view nymphing as simply not an option, It is their last real chance to fish a big fly to big trout before the stonefly hatches of the following spring.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015




ODFW has been working on simplifying and streamlining the angling regulations statewide. One of the proposed changes was to remove the current slot limit on the Deschutes River from the mouth to the Pelton Regulating Dam.  ODFW has decided to withdraw this proposal at this time and will retain the current slot limit regulations for 2016.

DUE TO PUBLIC OUTRAGE, THEY FINALLY THREW IN THE TOWEL. REGULATIONS WILL STAY THE SAME AS PREVIOUS YEARS:

2016 Lower Deschutes Rainbow Trout proposal:
Mouth to Pelton Reregulating Dam:
Open all year.
2 trout per day, 10 inch minimum – 13 inch maximum length.
Artificial flies and lures, except bait may be used form Sherars Falls downstream to upper trestle, (about 3 miles)
No angling from a floating device.
AS IN THE WORDS OF ONE OF OUR BETTER EDUCATED CLIENTS:

"For now, the patients appear to have returned to the asylum.   Good job getting the word out. "It was truly insane."