Caddis on the Arkansas River - Mother's Day Hatch

April in Colorado is the start of longer days and warmer weather.  This triggers the world renowned ?Mother?s Day Hatch?.   If you have never heard of it, it is an epic hatch of caddis flies that moves up the Arkansas River.  The hatch while dubbed the ?Mother?s Day Hatch? usually lasts for several weeks and sometimes one of those days happens to be Mother?s Day.  Matter of fact its starting right now!

Talking to my Father-In-Law who lives in Canon City and fishes the river almost daily, it must be nice to be retired.  The caddis are starting to come off in town along the river walk.  The hatch starts in Canon City and moves up the entire river.  As the water temps and the sun rises it triggers the hatch and usually continues tell runoff hits the Arkansas. Being on the water just above the hatch or right before the hatch comes off can make for an amazing day on the water.

The secret to fishing the hatch is to fish in front or behind it.  If there are thousands of caddis coming off the water it?s hard for your fly to match the real thing.  With so many to choose from your chances are greatly reduced that the trout will take your one imitation over thousands of other offerings.  If you are ahead of the hatch you will have few bugs coming off and it will be easier to spot and cast to rising trout.  Likewise if you are behind the hatch the trout will still be keyed on the caddis and with fewer bugs on the water chances are you will get more hook ups tossing your fly. 


Blue Wing Olives (BWO) hatch proceeds the Caddis hatch and in the very beginning of the hatch like what is going on now.  You can fish the BWOs in the morning and on cloudy cooler days and as the sun burns off the clouds and warms up the water switch to your Caddis flies.

I am headed out tomorrow with the soldiers in our Project Healing Waters group, but we will be higher up the Arkansas in the Salida area? but you can bet if the conditions are right I will be keeping an eye out for those first caddis.

Tight Lines!
Rick Schroeder
Founder ColoradoMountainFishing.com
[email protected]