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Spotted / Tan Caddis (Hydropsyche spp.)
Caddis, hatching May–August, active in water between 55 and 70°F, and imitated at #14–18. Recorded from the Virginia mountains, where 796 Virginia rivers on this site carry a page.
The commonest caddis on most of this water and the workhorse of the summer: a tan to cinnamon tent-winged adult, size 14 to 18, peaking from May through August. The larva spins a net in fast water to strain drifting food, lives everywhere there is current, and is constantly dislodged and constantly eaten, which makes a green or tan caddis larva a default nymph and keeps the insect in the drift year-round even when nothing is on the surface. The pupa rises to the film in the evening, and a swung pupa is the most reliable way to fish the hatch. Egg-laying adults dive and skitter, which a dead drift does not imitate. Activity runs 55 to 70 degrees, covering cold through warm water. Elk Hair Caddis 12 to 20, CDC Caddis 14 to 20, X-Caddis 14 to 18, LaFontaine Sparkle Pupa 12 to 18, Partridge and Orange Soft Hackle 12 to 18, Hare's Ear 10 to 18.
- #14–18Hook size
- 55–70°FWater, active
- May–AugPeak months
- 3Life stages fished
What it is
Caddis · Hydropsyche spp. · larva → pupa → adult
Hydropsyche: the commonest caddis on most of this water. A tan to cinnamon tent-winged adult, size 14 to 18, with a net-spinning larva that lives everywhere there is current.
The workhorse summer caddis. A net-spinner, so it is in the drift year-round even when nothing is on the surface.
When it hatches
Peak is May–August. The pale months either side are the shoulder — the app widens a peak by one month in each direction and recommends the bug there, and no further: that widening is bounded so that a bug peaking in May is never offered in August.
peak shoulder not recommended
Water conditions
The band is a water temperature, not an air temperature, and it is the range in which this insect is worth fishing — for a mayfly that is the emergence window; for a scud or a midge it is simply the range trout will still eat one in.
Active from 55°F to 70°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool, warm water — the band crosses 3 of the three breaks the river colours use. Breaks at 58, 64 and 70°F.
Stages
What the insect is doing, and what that means for what you tie on.
| Stage | What it is |
|---|---|
| larva | Spins a net in fast water to strain drifting food. Constantly dislodged and constantly eaten — a green or tan caddis larva is a default nymph. |
| pupa | Rises to the film in the evening. A swung pupa is the most reliable way to fish this hatch. |
| adult | Tan, tent-winged, and everywhere from May through August. Egg-layers dive and skitter, which a dead drift does not imitate. |
Matching flies
6 patterns in this book imitate the Spotted / Tan Caddis, across its stages. Which one to tie on follows the stage the water temperature says it is in — the app makes that call on a live reading; this page lists the whole set.
- CDC Caddis dry fly · #14–20 — Lower in the film than an Elk Hair. For flat water and educated fish.
- Elk Hair Caddis dry fly · #12–20 — Floats forever, skates on command, works when nothing is hatching.
- Hare's Ear Nymph nymph · #10–18 — Looks like everything and nothing. The other half of a two-nymph rig.
- LaFontaine Sparkle Pupa emerger · #12–18 — The gas-bubble pupa. Fished rising through the swing, which is how caddis actually emerge.
- Partridge & Orange Soft Hackle wet fly · #12–18 — Swung down and across. The simplest fly here and among the most effective.
- X-Caddis emerger · #14–18 — Trailing shuck, no hackle. The crippled-emerger version of the Elk Hair.
Where to find it right now
The rivers with a page here that sit in this insect's regions, with a USGS gauge reporting water temperature. This list is re-ranked against the reading each gauge is sending now and today's date, so it is live — the fallback below it, if the readings do not arrive, is each river's measured July mean.
- Falling Spring Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 63.1°F
- Indiandraft Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 63.1°F
- Jerrys Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 63.1°F
- Cascades Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Left Prong Wilson Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Lick Block Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Biggs Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 67.5°F
- Furnace Branch the Virginia mountains · July mean 67.5°F
- Hipes Branch the Virginia mountains · July mean 67.5°F
Regional presence
Regions, not collection records. This insect is recorded from the coarse regions below; nobody has surveyed which named river it has been caught on, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- northern lower Michigan MI
- southern lower Michigan MI
- the Upper Peninsula MI
- the Wisconsin driftless WI
- northern Wisconsin WI
- the Virginia mountains VA
- the North Carolina mountains NC
- southeast Minnesota MN
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Jackson River
- Smith River
- Als Run
- Alum Creek
- Amos Branch
- Anderson Run
- Ararat River
- Auberry Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Fork
- Back Run
- Baker Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Barbours Creek
- Bark Camp Branch
- Bark Camp Branch
- Barkcamp Branch
- Barnard Creek
- Barney Run
- Barterbrook Branch
- Batie Creek
- Battery Creek
- and 772 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Little Sister Caddis Cheumatopsyche spp. · Caddis · June–August
- Green Sedge Rhyacophila spp. · Caddis · May–August
- White Miller Nectopsyche spp. · Caddis · July–September
- Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie Rhyacophila spp. · Caddis · April–June and September–October
- Grannom Brachycentrus spp. · Caddis · April–May