The Mother's Day (Light Caddis Variant) hatch

"I'm not a quitter, grandpa!"

Seven-year-old Chance was not about to give up. His older brother had caught a couple of trout on his own and his four-year-old younger brother had caught one too, with some undivided assistance from Grandpa Chuck. Now it was Chance's turn.

He was standing on a narrow strip of gravel between a current seam on the West Fork of the Bitterroot and a strip of willows behind him. I had been watching from downstream. As his casts neared the point where some small fish were rising, he'd leave a back-cast in the willows, stop, untangle, and try again.

A few minutes of coaching helped him to make a short roll cast and connect with his first trout on a fly, a beautifully-colored little cutthroat that took a Light Caddis Variant.

I recalled that first trout and Chance's words when we were in Coeur d' Alene a couple of weeks ago to attend his graduation with a doctorate in nurse anesthesiology for Gonzaga. It was a happy and triumphant event for the whole family. Throughout his schooling, Chance persevered. As a man I'm proud of, he's still not a quitter.

In the down time between dinners and other activities, I set up a fly-tying vise and tied some flies for Chance - Light Caddis Variants.

After we left he and his lady fair, Chloe, headed for the St. Joe. Nothing was working and he thought "what the heck," and tied on one of grandpa's Light Caddis Variants.

It worked. Chloe caught a quick shot of Chance holding a nice cutthroat and then had him turn the fish quickly so she could capture photographic proof that the trout had taken a Light Caddis Variant. That second shot was a quick afterthought and out of focus. More important to get the fish back in the water after just a few seconds out for photos. On fishing trips since he was seven, Chance learned grandpa's sayings, quick grin, back in and keep 'em wet.

Chance and Chloe knew there was nothing hatching that resembled the yellow body and light tan flurry of wings and hackle that make a Light Caddis Variant. The only caddisflies around those days would have been one of the drab, darker gray-tan species that we lump together and call Mother's Day Caddis.

Chance and Chloe were fishing under a bright mid-afternoon sun. Those darker-colored caddisflies would have been seen by the trout only as a silhouette against the bright sky. That's something to remember: On a bright day, silhouette is important.

Mother's Day Caddis hatch best on overcast days or even dark stormy days. A Dun or Dark Caddis Variant is tied to mimic the colors of those early-season caddisflies. I've fished them when they'd get pelted with hard-falling raindrops and get knocked underwater. Still, in the few seconds they'd manage to stay afloat, they'd be taken by aggressive trout.

On days like those, the color of the fly is important. Chance's Light Caddis Variant would likely go fishless, save for the small fry or village idiot trout, on a dark and overcast day.

So which is most important, size or color? That question has several answers.

I can't think of size apart from silhouette. Sometimes you can make the wrong fly work - a big trout, after all, has a brain the size of a garbanzo bean - but you can't depend on it, and getting close in size-silhouette makes a difference. An egg-laying caddisfly, wings fluttering furiously, will have a remarkably different silhouette on the water than a sparse and slender spent-wing mayfly.

On the other hand, we've all seen days when we'd better get the color right or go fishless. Trout see color best on overcast days.

There are reasons for that and you can check them out easily enough.

Look at your hand, holding it down where the light is hitting it directly. You'll see the colors and details on your hand clearly. Now raise our hand toward the light source. As you do, the colors become indistinct and the silhouette of your hand stands out more clearly.

It's the same with trout. Against a bright sky, as a fish looks up at an insect trapped in the surface film of the water, at times all the trout can make out is size and silhouette. That's what Chance's trout saw when it took that out-of-season Light Caddis Variant.