Nice article from Angler's Covey

Caddis...NOW!

I like to fish upstream from the blanket hatch (maybe a mile or two). My favorite patterns are as follows:
Dries:
Elk hair caddis tan size 14, 16
Lawsons spent caddis tan size 16
Olive stimulator size 16
Lawson's E-Z caddis tan size 14, 16
Puterbaugh's foam caddis black  14, 16

Pupa:
Borieal's caddis pupa 14,16
Sparkle pupa tan or olive 14,16
Barr's Graphic caddis olive  16
Fish on sunny warm days. Stay upstream of the main hatch. Fish the subsurface flies early until you start to see rising fish...pretty simple.

For the more selective caddis risers, I like Lawson's spent caddis. Late in the day I like an egg layer pattern or an orange stimulator (Kingery's egg layer, or the Mother's Day caddis are great egg layer patterns).

You can fish the dry dropper...pay attention to the end of the drift when the subsurface fly starts to rise in the water column.  Some days there are tons of bugs on the water, but very few fish rising.  Obviously fish the pupa patterns when this occurs. Or sometimes I like to fish a big dry like an Amy's Ant in olive size 14 or 12 and drop a pupa off of the big dry......show them a porterhouse steak! It might bring them up!

On cooler cloudy days don't forget about the baetis! The Ark is a very underrated BWO river. Some of my best dry fly fishing days have been on the Arkansas during a baetis hatch. Fish Neils BWO size 18 or 20 to risers. If no rising fish are present I like to nymph with a Murphy's flashy grub (size 14) trailed with a mercury RS2 size 18. I concentrate on the fast water.  Usually you can see fish flashing in the fast riffles when they are on baetis nymphs preceding a hatch....this is where the Mercury RS2 hammers fish!

Steve Gossage