Trout Go Buggy For ‘Em
More than 1,200 species of caddisflies inhabit North American lakes and streams, but only a few hatch and run over the water.
One species, a caddisfly called the Traveling Sedge by fly fishers and even some entomologists, is a big enough mouthful to turn usually wary trout into slobbering idiots.
The sedge is a member of the family Phryganeidae.
Thousands of Canadian and American fly fishers spend hours during winter and spring months at their vises tying Traveling Sedge patterns. Then they drive hundreds of miles to lakes where the caddisflies hatch and hope they’ll see the sedges running over the water.
The Traveling Sedge is to British Columbia lakes what the legendary salmonfly is to Montana’s fabled trout streams. It’s a June bug. Most hatches occur each June, but some emerge in July.
When Dwight Tipton and I made plans to fish a few lakes north of Radium Hot Springs, we tried to schedule our arrival at the lakes when the big sedges would be hatching. We stocked up on such patterns as Mikulak’s Sedge, the olive Stimulator and Doc Spratley. The first two represent the adults and the Spratley is believed to suggest the pupa.
Timing is crucial. If the big caddisflies aren’t hatching, fishing can be deadly dull. In past years, we’ve fished lakes where only a few small midges, damselflies and mayflies were hatching and we hooked only an occasional fish. On the other hand, fishing was sensational at lakes where the big sedges were emerging.
Of course, Traveling Sedges aren’t the only caddisflies that hatch in British Columbia. Several other species, including small blackish caddisflies, inhabit lakes, and numerous caddisfly species, most of which can be tied on sizes 16 to 12 hooks, are prevalent in the province’s streams.
However, it’s the Traveling Sedges that fly fishers hope to see when they arrive at a lake, particularly a lake that has a reputation of supporting big hatches of Traveling Sedges and big Gerard or Kamloops strains of rainbows. The Traveling Sedges vary in size depending on the lake. Generally, most of the travelers’ bodies are less than an inch long.
Because their long, hair-covered, tent-like wings make the travelers seem bigger than they are when they run across the water surface, many fly fishers make the mistake of tying them on hook sizes as large as 6 2x long. In most cases, sizes 8 1x long or 10 2x or even 10 1x long are big enough to match the travelers.
Numerous patterns have been created to represent adult travelers. Two popular patterns are Mikulak’s Sedge, sometimes called Mitch’s Sedge, and the olive Stimulator, both tied on 1x or 2x light wire hooks. I caught numerous good-sized rainbows on both patterns and Tipton relied entirely on Stimulators during our days in the province.
Inasmuch as Traveling Sedges run on the water after hatching, often in circles, a pattern should float without diving under the water when a fly fisher skids it across the surface to suggest a running sedge. Elk hair and non-water absorbing body materials that don’t absorb water are used in most cases.
Our fastest fishing was at a shallow 75- to 85-acre lake hidden by a dense stand of tall spruce and pine trees from a heavily traveled gravel road. We fished it on our second day and caught several Gerard strain rainbows each on a variety of fly patterns, including imitations of chironomid pupae, leeches, dragonfly, caddis pupae and damselfly nymphs. We and other fly fishers saw only a few Traveling Sedges and assumed that the trout had not keyed on the insects.
While waiting for Tipton to get to shore at the end of the day, I walked over a knoll to see what was happening in a small bay. I was surprised to see several Traveling Sedges running in circles, the first I’d seen. But there were no trout in the bay.
When we returned two days later, I rigged up a floating line, tied on a Mikulak’s Sedge and rowed my pontoon boat around to the bay. Tipton went to the opposite side of the lake.
As I approached the bay, I saw a few rises. Maybe we’ll get action, I thought as I cast to a cruising fish. The trout swam up to the fly, opened its mouth, inhaled the pattern and almost instantaneously jumped about two feet out of the water.
From then on, I hooked a fish on every fourth or fifth cast. Tipton was too far away for me to call to him. Anyway, I didn’t want to tip off other anglers, some of whom were dragging hardware, that the trout were feeding and create competition for us in a small area of the lake.
Finally, Tipton, who hadn’t caught a fish, decided to join me. When I told him the trout were taking sedge patterns, he immediately tied on a Stimulator and quickly hooked a fish. During the next few hours we hooked and released more than 40 of the highjumping rainbows on our sedge patterns. We saw only a few of the travelers at a 500-acre-plus lake we fished twice and tried our Traveling Sedge patterns only briefly. Maybe, we concluded at the end of the trip, we had overlooked opportunities to hook 20- to 30-inch rainbows. We’ll never know.