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Fall Hatches Spark Trout Fishing In the fall most anglers are fishing for steelhead & salmon. This leaves a lot of unmolested trout water. Trout that have been feeding on the prolific hatches of the summer are fat & strong. Trout grow fast in the warm water of summer and are still growing & fattening through the fall months of September & October. They are strong & can be very aggressive. Tiny mayflies, midges & blizzard hatches of several species of caddis can produce tremendous dry fly fishing throughout the day. Fishing caddis pupa patterns sub-surface can also add to the fun.
	If you think that the biggest hatches and best dry fly fishing are in the spring and summer you should have checked out the caddis & midge activity on the Deschutes this past week. Hatches of of these aquatic insects made it nearly impossible to sit within 20' from a light at
night. Pictured above is the windrow of bug bodies that collected on the outer rim of the screen-house roof. Three species of caddis and four species of midges made up the mixture. The caddis were size 16/18 redish-golden brown, size 20/22 dark gray and sub-atomic size black. Midges were size 18-24 yellowish brown. The trout have been very responsive to all of this insect activity. I talked with two anglers riding Brian Silvey's boat the other day and they reported 40+ fish catches in the middle of the day. These fish were mostly caught with 16/18 Elk Hair Caddis dry flies. Some difficult fish were caught with a small nymph pattern dangled from the dry fly.

Adult October Caddis.

October Caddis are starting!
The Pacific Northwest has some spectacular giant caddis hatches. Most of these hatches are in the fall, but some cold spring creeks have hatches through much of

the winter and into the spring as well. The fat bodies are colors that range from light tanish orange to yellowish orange to bright orange to burnt orange. Wings are usually gray but there are also brown tones. There are apparently a number of different species in what is commonly called October Caddis or Fall Caddis or Giant Caddis. Most belong to the family Dicosmoecus. They range from California to Alaska.
The larva of these giant caddis build tube-like cases. During the winter months when the larva are tiny, these cases are made from vegetable matter attached to a foundation of silk. As the larva grows in size through the spring months they abruptly switch to cases made from small gravel. You can observe these larvae crawling around on the streambed dragging their cases with them as the forage for algae and decaying plant and animal matter. During the the summer months of June and July Dicosmoecus larvae are important trout foods. Daily behavioral drift cycles occur in the early afternoon, usually peaking about 4:00 P.M. They are one of the few families of caddis that leave their cases before behavioral drift cycles. This makes them extremely enticing to large trout. In August these larvae seal themselves in their cases and by September they are ready to emerge as adults.
Emergence occurs from late afternoon until dark. The pupae Usually swim and crawl to shallow water, but some emerge mid-river. At this time a pumpkin colored wet fly can be very productive.
Egg laying also occurs in the afternoon and evening. The big fate juicy females flop around on the water exuding their eggs. They are a prime attraction for trout of all sizes.
Be sure to have some Improved Sofa Pillows and Orange stimulators handy. Sizes range from #10 to #6 on 2X long hooks.
Caddis Dry Flies
Caddis Pupa

Have you met Elmer, my "camp guard snake"? He is an easy going but venomous Crotalus viridis that loves to hunt & eat rodents. He usually hunts in late morning and early afternoon when air temperatures are most comfortable. Warm soft nights are also a time of activity. He guards one of my favorite camp sites. I'll let you speculate on which one. He hunts the rodents that feed on the scraps left by careless users

of the camp while I am away. I first met Elmer when I left an open loaf of bread on top of a cooler where it was easy for some small rodent to get into. Sure enough one did. Elmer heard the commotion of the rodent getting inside the bread wrapper, and since he had heard that sound before, knew that a nice warm, soft, fuzzy morsel was for the taking if he played his cards right. It was an easy stalk. The cooler & bread were inside the floorless screen-house cook tent. The tent had a solid fabric skirt around the bottom, just higher than the rodent could see over. The path to the rodent was under this skirt and up the side of the cooler. This would enable the snake to get his head inside the sack before the rodent knew what was happening. A rodent inside a bread sack is an easy meal for a resourceful snake. The strike would be delivered quick and sure...then I came bumbling upon the scene and the rodent spooked from the bread wrapper and escaped with his life. This left Elmer stretch-out and exposed on the bare sand squarely in front of the tent door. Some people freak out when they encounter rattle snakes. I figured that Elmer might be in a precarious position when my two clients came into camp from the river. Elmer would have to move. I got a wading staff and herded him out of camp. He offered no resistance and retreated to spot where he was out of any probable human traffic. He hid under some alder roots for an hour and gave every body in camp something to ogle at. Elmer has become a regular resident. Be sure to leave lots of crumbs & garbage for the rodents to feed on. This way Elmer will have a perfect excuse to hang around camp & keep you company. One of these days I will tell you about Ellynor. She guards my other camp site.

Siphlonurus If you are fishing for trout on the Willamette Valley streams during the month of September, keep your eyes pealed for the Siphlonurus mayfly hatch. They crawl out of the water, to the top of exposed rocks to hatch. They do this rather quickly. The sequence below took less than 5 minutes. The hatch pictured below was in the early afternoon. The nymphs are about 1 1/8" long and fairly robust. They are a good mouth-full for a trout. Fishing large Hares Ear type nymphs along shallow gravel bares can be productive.

You might want to pack a couple of very large grayish-tan dry flies also.

The master's vise is the most advanced and versatile vise available. It is for the all around or production tier and is a must for the salt water tier. It will handle any hook from 28 to 10/0 with only one jaw and will keep the hook shank on the rotary center line. The jaw is infinitely adjustable to allow the tier to hold the hook at any part of the hook bend. The jaw lock is lever operated and requires less than one quarter the force needed for other lever operated vises to lock the hook tight enough to be bent. In fact, the lever is only one inch long and is precisely limited in its travel so the jaw cannot be unnecessarily overstressed. The master's vise also has the traditional rotary actuator which allows the tier to rotate the jaws by spinning the rotary arm. The arm can be reversed for left hand tying and/or locked in position to rotate in both directions. The rotary tension unit allows the tier to adjust the drag on the rotary shaft from free spinning to a locked position at any angle desired. The ball bearing head gives precision alignment and very smooth rotary motion to the shaft.

Description - Right Hand Vises	Part No.	Price
Renzetti Master Vise, Head Only, right hand (picture)	M6000R	$479.95
Renzetti Master Vise, with Saltwater C-Clamp, right hand	M6002R	$629.99
Renzetti Master Vise, with Saltwater Pedestal Base, right hand (picture)	M6004R	$629.99
Renzetti Master Vise, with Deluxe Pedestal Base, right hand (picture)	M6006R	$649.99

Description - Left Hand Vises	Part No.	Price
Renzetti Master Vise, Vice Head Only, left hand (right hand model pictured)	M6000L	$479.95
Renzetti Master Vise, Saltwater C-Clamp, left hand	M6002L	$629.99
Renzetti Master Vise, Saltwater Pedestal Base, left hand (right hand model pictured)	M6004L	$629.99
Renzetti Master Vise, Deluxe Pedestal Base, left hand (right hand model pictured)	M6006L	$649.99

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