The Caddis are Hatching

In fly-fishing, when the caddis are hatching, it signals a very specific kind of moment. The river itself doesn’t suddenly look different to the untrained eye, but something has shifted beneath the surface and is now expressing itself above it. Insects begin to emerge in noticeable numbers, the fish respond almost immediately, and what was quiet a short while ago becomes active. It is not chaos, and it is not random. It is a response to conditions that have already been building, long before anyone standing at the edge of the river could see it.

Business has similar moments, although we don’t always recognize them for what they are.

There are long periods where things feel slow, unclear, or unresponsive, and then, without any dramatic external trigger, something changes. Conversations start to cluster around similar themes. Clients begin asking the same kinds of questions. A problem that was previously vague becomes easier for people to articulate. It can feel like the market has suddenly come alive, but what has actually happened is that underlying conditions have aligned enough for that demand to become visible.

The mistake most people make is assuming that increased activity means they should simply do more. More content, more offers, more visibility, more outreach. They respond to movement with volume. But a hatch does not reward volume; it rewards alignment. During a hatch, the fish are not indiscriminate. They are responding to something specific, and anything outside of that is ignored, no matter how well presented it is.

That distinction matters more than most people realize. When a market becomes responsive, the real work is not to increase output but to understand what, exactly, is being responded to. What has shifted? What are people actually noticing, naming, and prioritizing now that they were not before? And does what you offer meet that moment in a way that feels relevant and timely, or are you simply reacting to the fact that there is movement?

There is also the part that happens before any of this becomes visible. Every hatch is preceded by a long developmental phase that takes place out of sight. In business, this is the period where you are refining your thinking, clarifying your message, shaping your offer, and understanding your market without much external feedback. It often feels like nothing is happening, but that is because the work being done is not yet meant to be seen. It is formative, not performative.

When the moment of emergence comes, you do not get the opportunity to go back and build what should have already been built. You meet that moment with whatever level of clarity and readiness you have achieved. If your thinking is still scattered, it will show. If your offer is not well aligned, it will show. And if you have not taken the time to understand who you are for and what problem you solve, the market will not slow down to accommodate that gap.

So the work is not simply about showing up consistently or increasing visibility. It is about developing the ability to read the moment you are in. Not every active market is an opportunity, and not every period of stillness is a sign that nothing is working. Sometimes it is simply the phase before something becomes visible.

The question, then, is not just whether there is movement, but whether you understand what kind of movement it is and whether you are positioned to meet it.

The caddis are hatching.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where in your business are you responding to increased activity without fully understanding what has actually shifted, and how might your decisions change if you focused first on reading the moment before reacting to it?