Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.
Some say caddisflies are even more important than mayflies, and they are probably right. The angling world has taken a while to come to terms with this blasphemy. Caddis imitations are close to receiving their fare share of time on the end of the tippet, but too many anglers still assume all caddisflies are pretty much the same.
Caddis species actually provide as much incentive to learn their specifics as the mayflies do. There is just as much variety in their emergence and egg-laying behaviors, and as many patterns and techniques are needed to match them. Anglers are hampered only by the relative lack of information about caddisfly behavior and identification.
Dryfly on Dec 18, 2009December 18th, 2009, 3:27 pm EST
I have a basic understanding of caddis fly IDing when it comes to the larva, but how do you tell the adults apart. You can never have enough useless bug knowledge. :)
Creno on Dec 18, 2009December 18th, 2009, 3:51 pm EST
from a fishers perspective start with Thomas Ames' new book Caddisflies. If that is not enough for ya let me know and I will find whatever is good at that time. Depending on what you want you may not need any more than Ames' book.
creno
Creno on Dec 19, 2009December 19th, 2009, 4:56 am EST
If you would rather use a pc than paper, here is an interesting approach I forgot about. http://www.entomology.umn.edu/museum/projects/keys/
Ralph Holzenthal's UofMN site has lots of other useful information for folks interested in caddis and is updated fairly frequently.