Of Hoppers and Crickets....
I was tying up a few Elk Hair Caddis's for a local shop yesterday, and my mind wa drifting to bluegill fishing, and how much I was looking forward to fishing for them this weekend. They LOVE crickets.
Then, I started really looking at the Elk Hair Caddis I was tying. Other than the general side sillouette, it doesn't really look much like an adult Tricoptera. I examined it from the bottom,. the way a fish would see it, and realized this looks as much like a grasshopper, as it does a Caddis Fly. Tied in all black, it should make a good cricket pattern. Tied in green, yellow and/or brown, it'd be a great hopper.
My B.S. was in Biology, so I know that fish cannot count, so the number of legs is irrelevant. The large angled rear leg is also redundant, because a fish has mere seconds for a window of opportunity to decide to eat, or not, before the bug either drifts away, or another fish grabs it. This doesn't leave a lot of time for the fish to examine it closely. As long as there is nothng obvious wrong with the fly, like ridiculous proportions, or wrong shape/size, it should work. I've been spending tons of time tryng to tie realistic-looking crickets (I hate tying knots in feathers or rubber legs for the rear jumping legs), and it may have been unnecesary.
Everybody else has probably already figured all this out a long time ago, but for me, it was something of an epiphany.
I have tied a few of these up in black, and I will see if the local panfish will accept my humble offerings tomorrow.
Here it is....the black Elk Hair Bug (I am dropping the Caddis from the name for this color).
Hook: #10 Cabelas Model 03, Dry Fly Hook 2X long.
Thread: black 6/0 Unithread
Body: black Superfine dubbing
Hackle: black Whiting Hen Neck, tied in by tip and palmered forward.
Wing: Black Elk Hair
I think that any self-respecting panfish is going to have a hard time passing this up. I'll know tomorrow.
Ciao, y'all!
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