A Word On Caddis

 

"No fly rod at any price is going to magically transform you into a Lefty Kreh or a Joan Wulff any more than a Stradivarius is going to turn your middle school violin student into Itzhak Perlman". - George Roberts, Tail Fly Fishing Magazine

I've never had much use for the color green when tying flies even when there are so many green caddis in rivers like the Millers, Ware and the EB. I used to grab a case caddis off of a rock and then break it open to see that brightly colored nymph and then just toss it back into the river.  I think it may be because of that bright green color.  It didn't look natural to me but that's my mistake. A few years ago I made the switch to green and that changed everything!

My favorite caddis is the American Grannom that appears by the millions in temperate freestones, like the rivers I just mentioned above, through the entire month of May. At the peak of the hatch it covers the streamside bushes but the real action  (for me) is the migration that this insect makes to get to out of the water.  Most of the trout I've caught using this pattern are taken right at the end of the drift and the hits are usually hard.

Deep Sparkle Pupa, Emergent Sparkle Pupa and the Grouse and Flash are time tested patterns for this insect's life stage. I'm not a big fan of these Sparkle patterns because I feel that the little ballon is unnecessary but many swear by the pattern so I give it a pass.

I saw four robins this morning. It's a start!!!

Ken

P.S. Recipe for the fly in the photo:

Hook - standard dry fly size 12 to 14

Body - bright green rabbit fur

Rib - one strand of micro flash palmered

Hackle - webby hen hackle dyed brown

Tweaking An Old Standard

 

"Hell, give me Greenwell's Glory, and Campbells Fancy and Beaverkill, all wet and about size 12 and May on the big river, and anyone else can have whatever he wants". - Sparse Grey Hackle writing about the Beaverkill River and it's older flies

It's early May and the Zebra Caddis are everywhere except you will not find many on the water surface but in bushes along the river.  They crawl to the streamside by the thousands to do their mating  dance and with so many flying , usually after we shake the bushes around, we think surface action will be great but mostly it's not.  At this point it's a wet fly game!!

My Wet Caddis - This is Simple

A size 14 or 12 hook (I like 12, 16 works too

Black thread (your size)

Tie in 2 peacock herls and wind on for the body

Take one grouse hackle feather and, without stripping the fluff from the base of the feather, wind two turns up and then secure.

The fluff will make the best wing/leg presentation possible.

Yes, it's freezing out BUT only 3 months to go unless you're a freezout nut!!!

Ken

The DMS Caddis And Lost Rods

 

This may be my favorite go to fly that I have for ANY river. The DSM caddis works in any size (these are size 16).  You've seen me highlight this fly in larger sizes but for the Swift, Deerfield and the EB size 16 It is perfect!

Hook - size 16 scud style

Body - grey/ brown rabbit

Thorax - peacock or ostrich

Hackle - one turn of partridge, woodcock or starling

This is a RIFFLE fly and it works best in shallower choppy water.  It's considered an emerger fished right below the surface and it works all season long. I saw my friend Lenny clobber trout in the riffles just below the Duck Pond on the Swift in mid Noverber!!  

This may be the only emerger caddis that you will need all season long.

Well, it happened again. Somebody dropped a rod section and luckily it was found before someone stepped on it.  AGAIN, DON'T TAKE YOUR ROD APART UNTIL TOU GET BACK TO YOUR VEHICLE. That's how most lost sections get noticed on this blog.

The Snowshoe Emerger

 

The Snowshoe Emerger

 

This could be the very best dry fly/emerger pattern that may exist in trout land and that is because of how it is put together and what it represents. 

First, it mimics the the most important stage of the emerging insect - an insect that is struggling to break through to the surface by breaking through the surface film/tension and then flying away as an adult insect. That is what most of the aquatic insects do and the majority of those insects don't make it.  The majority of the rises that you see on a trout stream are trout grabbing these insects while in the film AND NOT ADULT insects riding on the surface.  That's why an insect pattern that mimics the emerger work the best.  That is why traditional dry fly patterns of will fail often.

Why does this pattern work?  Well, it's how it's built. The photo shows a fly pattern that has a dubbed rear body that is meant to SINK below the surface film and a front body, because of it's material, is meant to FLOAT, just like a natural insect.  The front body is made of snowshoe fur or deerhair (the wing). They both work great and in patterns in the size 12 to 16 range they work best and in this size range do much better than CDC which gets waterlogged and slimmed easily.  Snowshoe and deer hair will win because they are rugged and clean up easily. There are many synthetic wing materials out there but I like the natural materials in the same way that I prefer shooting a recurve or long bow instead of a compound bow.  (hope you know what I'm talking about)!

It may be a while (April) before we will cast to fish that are not sipping size 28's. 

Every once and a while I'll check out the euro blogs and see a steady loop of dive bombing trout with heavy beadheaded nymphs that really don't represent any real trout food and are nothing more than attractor flies. They catch fish but so do I with flies that represent insects or tiny minnows in a more natural state.

The great flyfisher, Bob Wyatt, changed my mind on a lot of surface fishing and made me a better flyfisher.

Ken

Freestones = Big Ugly Flies

 

"There's no greater fan of flyfishing than the worm"- Patrick F. McManus

I love freestones and the creatures who live in them. It's a very fertile environment that just doesn't hold trout food of a certain size (BWO or mdges)  but insects and crustaceans of all sizes. Don't forget about the baitfish species that swarm in these streams. I've watched trout practically herd batfish to attack them!!  I sampled the bug life with Dr. Ken Simonds on the Millers and captured more insect species then I knew exited there.

You may be asking yourself "what fly do I use"?  The answer is any large fly of a dark color.  The fly in the above photo has been mistaken for crayfish, dragon fly nymphs, leeches and hellgrammites by many trout and smallmouths.

Your first choice of fly may be the old reliable woolly bugger.  Go for it because we all know it works.

Ken

A Note About Leaders

 

"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to contemplate". - Izaac Walton

I was checking my emails over coffee at 6am today and ran across an article about the problems of using thin tippets.  It reminded me of a blog article that I wrote back in 2015 on the same topic. Here are the highpoints of that 2015 article:

1. You don't need 7x or 8x to fish subsurface. The trout really cannot see that thin leader and I had some very good anglers back me up on that.  When fishing the Swift below RT 9 I seldom if ever go smaller than 5x with a sunken fly and I catch trout. My Tenkara setup NEVER goes below 5x even with a size 18 PTN and it works.  I saw a video of Joe Humpheys fishing nymphs on a limestone Pa stream with 3x and he caught trout.  In short, if your subsurface presentation is orderly and not sloppy YOU WILL TOO!!

2. Ultra light tippets kill trout!!  You see this on the Swift where hooked trout are played to death because we are afraid of break offs. "Catch and Release and Die" is not the game we are playing. Land the trout using a stronger tippet and then release it quickly.

3.  Use a heavier rod!!  I don't mean using a 6wt but a 3 or 4wt will get the trout to the net quickly to be quickly released. There are those that believe that you MUST use something like a 0wt for dry flies! It is simply not true.  I've used my 7.5 foot 4wt bamboo with dry flies all over the 20 size range and was successful.  If you are careful it can be done.  On a windy day you will thank me for the advice.

One last thing: some anglers in the euro nymphing crowd fish very heavy nymphs on the lightest tippets saying that a light tippet gets the fly down quicker.  Most prime euro water isn't really that deep to begin with and getting down shouldn't require depth charges to do it.

Another last thing: I noticed while re-visiting my old posts on the subject that I was preaching using about 5 feet of 3x while fishing heavier water below the surface.  

Hmmm.......

Happy New Year

Ken