Tailwater Tribe

I got an E-mail from my friend Randy Berndt in Wisconsin to tell me of his weather woes; 6-8" of snow predicted.  As of this time last year Randy had landed over 70 trout in the Driftless Region.  His count in 2011--1 fish.  I feel sorry for Randy in his deep freeze but thought I'd spread a little sunshine his way.  Yesterday, with temps in the mid 70's, I donned the waders to fish my anticipatory spring break caddis hatch on the Little Red River in Arkansas.  Today (Tuesday, April 19) with temps expected and exceeding 85 degrees, I pulled into the Cow Shoals parking lot, slipped on the wading sandals and shorts and practically jogged down to the river.  Hard to believe the freedom that wet-wading provides without the cumbersome boots and waders... The caddis hatch is on the wane, but I have managed to catch a few rising fish with an X-caddis and an Elk hair variant.  I dropped a #16 Red Ass soft hackle below it and got most of my fish on the Red Ass.  I was very fortunat

Just wanted to give a shout out to my buddy and fantastic fly-fisherman Randy Berndt in Wisconsin.  Randy and I are alums from Montana State University and I met him this past summer on campus in Bozeman.  He really taught me a lot about Montana trout fishing on the Gallatin and Bridger Creek around Bozeman.  I can only hope to be as good as he is one day.  For those people that follow my blog, please check out Randy's blog "On The Fly," which is listed under my favorite blogs at this site.  I am hopeful that Randy and I will be able to get together this summer to rekindle some memories and hopefully he can show me "how it's done" out west somewhere, on my home waters of Arkansas, or somewhere in the driftless region.... Cheer's Randy!  Here's to a successful fly fishing season in 2011!

Well, the winter is officially over and I'm getting reports from up north that the caddis are beginning to pop their compound peepers above their shucks and the surface film.  I have to say that this is my 2nd favorite hatch of the year (excluding Salmonflies, of course...), but as I spend more time fishing in Arkansas than Montana, this is my favorite first significant hatch of the year... The Rhycophila Caddis or Green Sedge is a large group of big moth-like bugs that develop underwater from eggs laid by the female in the water.  The eggs hatch into a green, worm-like larva that protects itself by taking small pebbles and covering its body, gluing them together from a web-like protein they produce similar to silk worms or spider webs.  These caddis are members of a large group of "cased caddis"  If you walk in the stream and turn over a few rocks, you can find thousands of these little mummy-like cases attached to them.  These cases protect the vulnerable larvae from w