Insect Order Trichoptera (Caddisflies)

In Alberta they exist in very small numbers but are not important to fishermen--Amos

Here in the Willamette Valley the McKenzie Caddis (as Arctopsyche grandis is known locally) usually begins its emergence sometime around mid-May and can continue into mid-June. The most emergence activity will be noted on warm days once the water temperature reaches @ 52f. Most hatches occur on warm sunny days from 4pm-7pm. Arlen Thomason goes into great detail about the life-cycle and behaviors of a. grandis in his book "Bug Water".

At least for me, the McKenzie Caddis, marks the beginning of summer and excellent fly fishing for trout on the McKenzie, Middle Fork Willamette, North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette, and our other local rivers and streams.

I had not fished Bennett Spring for many years and ended up there on Nov 26. I was not very prepared for the stream's entemology, spoke to someone at the flyshop and went with fishing a midge or two and this was very successful. But it was quite obvious that the trout were feeding on the surface or just under and it wasn't a midge. As the day progressed and late afternoon brought sunshine, a hatch of Tiny Caddis(Black) appeared. I had a size 18 but it wasn't dark enough or small enough. A gent who fished the stream regularly gave me a #24 black Elk Hair(or other hair) caddis. The fish took this fly as a dry off the surface. I am hard pressed to ID this fly aside from Protoptila. This, however, is not a marginally temp spring, the water is consistent flow a cold. The description of the Protoptila indicates that this insect is more a warm water insect. The hatch was occurring right at the spring itself. Any ideas?

Again, this was a size 24 fly, and maybe,just maybe, a 26 or 28 might have been the appropriate size for the insect as there were obvious refusals at the surface.

David (dai_sca@yahoo.com

Gary Lafontaine described gas filling the pupal skin to buoy it to the surface. Enough that it created a silver halo effect around the insect. Does anyone know if this has stood the test of time? Seems pupa patterns are still popular that lack an antron sheath, beads, or other such things. I've seen for myself adult divers coated in "quicksilver". But pupae? Is it true?

I have been searching photos here trying to identify a particular caddis and can't find what I'm looking for. Unfortunately I don't have a photo so I'll try a description.
First of all the caddis in question is located in small, heavily vegetated lakes in the foothills east of Yellowstone Park. The adults are up 1 1/4 inch in length from head to rear wing tip. The abdomen and thorax are light olive in color, the legs are tan with just a hint of light olive. The wings are very light tan/off-white in color. the antennea are very short for a caddis at 3/8-1/2 inch in length and medium tan in color.
Locally they are referred to as "Big Horned Caddis". They emerge in late spring/early summer for about 4 weeks starting at the time the submerged vegetation beds become well established. The pupa opens and the adult appears almost immediately upon reaching the surface making collection of the pupa almost impossible from the surface as they emerge from deep water.
On emergence the adult takes flight and disappears later returning to "skate" across the lake surface I suspect depositing eggs as I have yet to observe one diving although this may be due to the fact that trout are savagely feeding on these skating adults and my emtemolocical focus is greatly disturbed.

Any help identifying these caddis will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

John