Splitsville October Caddis

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hook - Dai Riki 300 #8
thread - UTC 140 hot orange
body - dubbing orange
hackle - grizzly dyed orange (1 Tbs Rit Sunshine Orange/1 cup water) undersize by 1
wing - deer hair dyed orange


Regards,
Scott

Beautiful. Getting to be that time of year.

So I have to ask Scott, have you ever managed to fish a hatch where the fish are actually keyed in on adults? On my rivers, it is a very rare late season occurrence and the conditions have to be just right for the fish to really go after adults (wet or snowy cold days where the adults slow down enough to make a ready meal). Over the years have always caught more fish on pupae than adults, but that never stops me from hoping.

Nice tie and thanks for sharing.

John,

Thanks. The heaviest emergence I’ve ever seen was on the Missouri; there weren’t that many bugs and I only saw a few fish up (I’m guessing they were after the Caddis because the rises were pretty showy and the only other bugs around were #22 pseudos). I’ve found a number of pupae on some of the little blue lines in the area but few adults. The foam flies seem to work anyway.

Regards,
Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whatfly

...Getting to be that time of year.

So I have to ask Scott, have you ever managed to fish a hatch where the fish are actually keyed in on adults? On my rivers, it is a very rare late season occurrence and the conditions have to be just right for the fish to really go after adults (wet or snowy cold days where the adults slow down enough to make a ready meal). Over the years have always caught more fish on pupae than adults, but that never stops me from hoping.

....

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Although it's not entirely clear, I assume that your question relates specifically to October Caddis ("a very rare late season occurence").

My home water is a northern Idaho freestone river. The past week or so there have been lots of adult October Caddis around. Just yesterday, while talking to a couple of brothers visiting / fishing that creek, we observed a couple dozen OC adults in the brief time that we talked.

I don't think of this hatch as one that involves "emergers". From what I have observed, and read, very few, if any, October Caddis emerge directly from the water as adults. They generally crawl to streamside structure and exit their exoskeleton on land - the streamside rocks on my home water are generally covered with the very light tan and very fragile exoskeletons this time of year. ( Some may be "in the drift" and represent a nymph or soft hackle opportunity, but that is not something that I have found productive. )

The westslope cutts that inhabit my home water, and an occasional bull trout, are quite fond of the OC adults. An OC dry is the fly du jour this time of year, and usually for weeks on end.

The pattern that consistently works for me, and those to whom I gift them, is the FEB October Caddis - FAOL FOTW for 6-2-12.

You can find that pattern in the FOTW Archives, or you can go to the Reader's Voice forum page 9 for some updated comments and an anecdote about a bull trout that spent 28 minutes holding onto that pattern. The update involved going from the original deer hair for the wing and bullet head to a light blond elk rump patch hair for those components of the fly.

It may be particular to the creeks I fish in northern Idaho, but most of the OC adults I catch and observe have very subtle and light orange, if any, coloration. They generally tend to be light tan with some orange tints. Some do have fairly strong orange accents but still present as basically a light tan insect.

John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whatfly

have you ever managed to fish a hatch where the fish are actually keyed in on adults? On my rivers, it is a very rare late season occurrence and the conditions have to be just right for the fish to really go after adults (wet or snowy cold days where the adults slow down enough to make a ready meal). Over the years have always caught more fish on pupae than adults, but that never stops me from hoping.

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John,

I have so much fun watching them come up for the dries I'll settle for the ones that are dumb enough to do it. The Splitsville and all the foam things are almost as much fun to tie as they are to fish, after a few days of casting #22 tricos on tailwaters, they're a nice change of pace.

Regards,
Scott

A couple other observations:

For me, it really makes a difference in the appearance (fish don't care but they're not the ones tying) to undersize the hackle; standard length hackle just looks too big

I really like how a spun deer head/wing, muddler style (see Splitsville Muddler Spruce Moth ), looks and performs for the Splitsville. I never liked the dubbed head of the original, preferring the additional buoyancy the butt ends of the deer hair provide; found this to be true even in smaller sizes (maybe not micro black caddis). Although not quite as good as foam, these flies do a good job riding on top, even after multiple fish, with a couple false casts.


Regards,
Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnScott

...The westslope cutts that inhabit my home water, and an occasional bull trout, are quite fond of the OC adults. An OC dry is the fly du jour this time of year, and usually for weeks on end...

It may be particular to the creeks I fish in northern Idaho, but most of the OC adults I catch and observe have very subtle and light orange, if any, coloration. They generally tend to be light tan with some orange tints. Some do have fairly strong orange accents but still present as basically a light tan insect.[snip]

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Thanks for the anecdote, John. Have seen many large hatches on my stream for October caddis, who are a pretty distinctive orange in my neck of the woods, although the pupae range from cream to orange depending on maturity. While one might expect them to be a likely target, the rainbows in my area pretty much ignore them until it gets cold and wet and the adults spend more time on the water. Our hatch is still a couple weeks away, and while nymphing pupae is already effective, the dries are just not productive enough to merit use, unless the right conditions are met in the late season. Typically by the time the weather turns there are bigger game to go after, so I've never met the right circumstance to try my luck with adult patterns.

Always interesting to hear what is going on in other parts of the country.