Caddis Variant
By Elaine Cook
Caddis Variant
By Elaine Cook
Adult caddis patterns are effective about anywhere trout are found, especially on moving water. They can be fished dead drift, twitched or even scooted. A small olive-body tan caddis hatch appears on the Owens River (April fishout) almost every day: have some in sizes 16 and 18.
| Hook: | Tiemco TMC 921 size 12-18 TDE 1XF, wide gape also Mustad R30 Dai-Riki 305 Daiichi 1310 |
| Thread: | grey 8/0 |
| Body: | caddis green poly dubbing |
| Wing: | fine deer hair, natural tan |
| Hackle: | one golden (medium) barred ginger one blue dun (pale) grizzly |
Other color combinations:
| Thread | Body | Wing | Hackles (use two) |
|---|---|---|---|
| black | grey | grey | barred blue dun |
| tan | cinnamon | brown | barred medium ginger |
| yellow | yellow | light ginger | barred light ginger |
1. Crimp barb.
2. Start thread at mid-shank and wrap to rear.
3. Dub thread with a generous amount of material, twist to make a tight rope and wrap forward in close touching turns halfway up shank. The body should look segmented.
4. Cut a medium clump of deer hair, clean underfur from butts, stack tips evenly and hold it with the tips extending a little past the bend. Take one turn of thread around the hair only, then take the next turn around both hair and hook shank. Tighten the thread to take all the slack out, then pull the thread straight down to flare the deer hair up. Trim the butts at an angle and bind them down. (Optional: add drop of head cement to the base of the hair and bound butts to lock it in place.)
5. Select a hackle of each color, with barb length equal to 11/2 hook gape.
6. Prepare hackle by cutting the excess butt ends, then trimming the last few barbs close to the stems. Tie in by the butt at the base of the deer hair with the tips to the rear and the dull side toward you.
7. Dub thread as above and wrap forward to two eye lengths behind the eye.
8. Wrap hackle forward to one eye length behind the eye. The hackle should be thick and generous.
9. Wrap a thread head, whip finish and cut thread.
Apply floatant before fishing. Although deer hair is very buoyant, once waterlogged, it takes a long time to dry.
Note on hackle colors: grizzly is white to light grey with darker grey to black barring. Pale gray (blue dun) grizzly is sometimes called chinchilla. Barred hackle is white or cream with some other natural color barring, usually ginger or brown. Cree has both black/dark gray and brown (or dark ginger) bars. Olive (or some other artificial color) grizzly means grizzly over-dyed with olive (or the named color).
[Each of you club members is welcome and encouraged to submit your favorite fly for publication here. Please include a picture with your words of wisdom about why it's your favorite, how to tie it and how to fish it.]