Hi all, need to start learning more about bugs, especially caddis.

For the life of me I cant remember the little book that everyone recommends.

Cansomeone pass me on the title and i can get onto Coch y bhonddu?

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

"Waterside Guide" by John Goddard.

Try and get a copy of his Trout Fly Recognition and Trout Flies Of Stillwater.

Another useful book "matching The Hatch" by Pat O'Reilly.

More advanced, but the best there is, is Caddisflies by the late Gary LaFontaine.

A lengthy taster can be found here: Fishing Flies, Lafontaine on Caddisflies - MidCurrent

I picked up my copy at Coch-y-bonddu books.

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Save the softmouth trout

There is an absolute beaut just come out about the upwings by Cyril bennet and Craig Macadam, you will be able to order it from the river fly partnership;

Pictorial guide to the British Ephemeroptera by Cyril Bennett and Craig Macadam

Caddis is realy tricky there are 100's and the most extensive key to identifiction is a huge pile which you would need to use with the aid of a Microscope to look at the private bits.
I find working between An anglers entymology JR harris and Trout fly Recognition by goddard are a good start( both available second hand and cheap from amazon or ABE books)
The FSC guides; The simple key to caddis larvae is great for the cased and uncased larvae, And the Guide to adult caddis flies or sedge flies, is great starter for the caddis adults.

FSC Publications - AIDGAP identification guides
is where to order these from and the Bennet Macadam guide

If you want to take it further then its a case of joining a scheme where you catch them and send them off, which is especialy useful if you frequent the same river often. If you want to know more about collecting and sending off samples try:

Adult Caddisfly Occurence Scheme - Stuart Crofts

The Adult Caddisfly Occurence Scheme was set up by Stuart Crofts in 2006 to improve our understanding of adult caddisflies, their distribution and flight patterns. A report is produced annually and species records are shared with the Trichoptera Recording Scheme.

Adult caddisflies around our British waters are generally under recorded. Stuart aims to improve our knowledge and awareness of distributions by collating data of where and when adult caddisfly species are on the wing in Great Britain and Ireland.

Your involvement in the initiative is welcomed. Involvement incorporates collecting any type of adult caddisfly (there are almost 200 species in the UK) found on or near the water, attracted by house lights or collected in moth traps.

See below for related articles, including the 2007 ACOS Report and data (which also includes information on how to take part in the Scheme). For further information, or to take part in the scheme register your contact details with Stuart via email pennine@troutbum.freeserve.co.uk.

I thi k i'll try "waterside Guide" as this should cover basic caddis, olives etc.

Is this focussed on rivers ?

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Yes it is. I have the book and quite frankly found it a bit dull. In fact I'll happily sell you my copy! However, "Matching The Hatch" by Pat O'Rielly is a much better read IMO. Really good photos and loads of info. If like me you are new to a serious look at entomology then I'd go for Matching The Hatch everytime.

Chris

I think that's poor advice.

Waterside Guide isn't perfect but it's a much better start to the topic than Matching the Hatch.

Good luck with its spider, if you can manage it shell out and buy two books. Its really hard at first being sure and you will find cross referencing between two books really helps a lot.

I find that the more work you have to put into getting the identity right, the more chance it has of sticking in your memory.