Both anglers and entomologists know these diminutive flies as "Microcaddisflies." The term refers to this family specifically, not to all tiny caddisflies. Many are large enough for imitation on small hooks, but some are impossibly small, as tiny as hook size 36.
Like the Tricorythodes mayflies, Microcaddisflies can be important to trout because of their extreme abundance in certian waters.
Pdcox on Dec 10, 2019December 10th, 2019, 11:54 pm EST
GLad I stumbled on this thread. Was fishing the Niangua and experienced what i thought was a hatch of smuts. However after finding this conversation, it makes a lot of sense that i found black caddis. Now that is a first for me. I persuaded a trout to hand over a few , and here they are.