OCTOBER CADDIS & PUMPKINS

Tomorrow I’ll be in California. Jim Hidy, the split bamboo rod maker, invited me to join a group that gets together every year around this time in hopes of hitting the October Caddis hatch just right. He called yesterday and said it looks like close to perfect conditions. Perfect conditions before I go fishing always scare me. I didn’t quite understand the alchemy involved for the hatch to come off, but I think there needs to be a hard frost and the stars have to be aligned right….you know what I mean.

I’m just happy to be going. It’s been ten years since I tried to fish the October Caddis hatch with Jim and his pals. He says they have it dialed in a little better now. Anyway, I’ve gotten all sorts of fly pattern recipes for an October Caddis dry fly. One friend said, “It’s just a pumpkin colored caddisfly, dude.” I’m at the tying bench now. It’s late. I guess I should have got going on this sooner. Think Pumpkin. 

A late night attempt at tying an October Caddis imitation.