Rainbow and Brown Trout Fishing Flies

     In Argentina and Chile as probably in the northern hemisphere, the caddis fly is recognized by their bouncing, erratic flight over trout streams and rivers. Unlike the mayfly and stonefly, the caddis are available to the brown and rainbow trout as a food in four stages: 

• The larva stage, whether in or out of a case 
• The pupa stage
• As an adult 
• As an adult female in the ovipositing stage. 

     The four different stages show how important the caddis is as a food supply for trout. They probably represents half the trout regular diet in the streams and rivers that they inhabit.

The Hatch

     Just below the Rio Puelo Lodge at the headwaters of the Rio Puelo in Argentina/Chile border there is a flat section of the river. It is wide and shallow with lots of freestones. During the daylight hours you can see the river bottom and pick out just a few feeding trout. That area of the river doesn’t seem to hold a lot of trout as you might think or am I wrong? Wait until evening time when the sun has set and the twilight comes edging on. The surface is slick and quiet. Then the first caddis bouncing along is spotted, then another and another. There's a rise! Hey, there's another!. The hatch has begun and thus the fish appear. Soon it looks like its snowing from the river up rather than from the sky down. It’s all those flies and the trout are on them like fleas on a dog. The trout are rising everywhere. 

Size and Color

       When a hatch appears you need to have a pretty close imitation of the caddis as to color and size or you'll get refused a lot. You might fool a few but with a close match you will get better results. You want to have the right fly on time, because these types of hatches are short lived with a short re-occurrence after the initial big hatch. After this you have lost the light. So you should have different sizes and colors. I would say 10-18 in the dark elk hairstyle would be a must. Some light colors also would be good to have on hand such as the tan and rust.