Spectacular Caddis Hatch/ Big Trophy Brown

Wow,

What a weekend! From the back deck, here at the White River Inn, I was lucky enough to witness one of the White Rivers natural wonders! A caddis hatch of epic proportions! As I watched,literally tens of millions of the tiny moths moved up the river in a fog like swarm, that covered the river from bank to bank! The rivers surface was covered in the tiny husks that looked like a blanket of snow.

This hatch is an annual occurence here on the White River, but I have never seen such an immense hatch. It looked like something from a scary movie or the nature channel. We had two guided fly trips on the river and they"experienced it" first hand! The moths were everywhere and all over them. Marc said he had never seen a hatch like this either.Of course, with the river and air totally full of this "fish food", the fishing was a little slower than during a normal hatch. Ordinarily these hatches start a tremendous "bite" on elk hair caddis and soft hakle flies.These flies imitate both the emerging and adult stage of this tiny little moth. The fish did cooperate somewhat, with everyone landing several trout.

This was my wife Tinas' first try at flyfishing, and she had a blast! Under Davys tutelage, both women caught several ,and announced eagerly ,that they didn't hook Davy and they only lost one fly on a rock. I think this qualifies as a successful day, but it doesn't stop here. After a few hours of fishing Lees indicator "zipped" under the water and began screaming down river. It was obvious this was a very large fish as backing peeled off of the reel at a scary pace. With Davys' expert boat handling ,and chasing this fish up and down the river for almost ten minutes, the fish finally came to the net! It was a beautiful female brown of around seven pounds. Her colorations were bright and distinct , with an over abundance of red dots! A trophy fish by any definition, Lee Wbster has the bragging rights for this weeks trips!