On Oct 18, 11:33*am, notbob wrote:

Well, adults caddis come in every size imaginable and there are
dozens and dozens of caddisfly patterns. Most common in the West I
would guess is the Elk hair caddis, and variants of the same w/ wings
laid flat or splayed. And generic Stimulators in smaller sizes and
tied sparse are also common. Sometimes a bit of glow orange is added
as a tag, being a wishful egg sac to mimic the egg laying
(ovipositing) female. Since most of the fished caddis hatch comes
after dusk in fading light, a dark caddis fly seems to work better,
the theory being that it is more visible against the sky. And mostly
you focus on the riffles, and the head of the pool. When the full
caddis hatch is on, it is still possible to find stragglers at dawn.
Fish the fly like a flagged out drunk coming home. Cast into the head
of the pool and let it drift down into the pool with a minimum of
action.

Someone else might fill you in on how to fish the earlier life stages
of the caddis and the other bugs. There are some incredible nymphers
who occasionally post here and hopefully are still lurking . I am
definitely not one.

As to your comments about the huge number of fly patterns....
One shortcut is to first focus on the principle types of insects, and
other fish foods. Then stock generic patterns that give impressions of
multiple bugs. For the "mayflies" the old generics (Adams, Cahill,
Hendrickson), still work. Fishing generics and attractors helps you to
focus on presentation, rather than exact imitation.

"Mayflies," Floating/sinking, big/small, light/dark
Caddis flys, Floating/sinking, big/small, light/dark
Stone flys, Floating/sinking, big/small, light/dark
True flies, (diptera.)
Terestials: Hoppers, ants, beetles etc
Little fish: Streamers
Odds and ends: tiny rodents, crayfish, worms, eggs

Dave