Dave,
Do you agree that the Caddis was not such a "go to" fly as it seems to be over the last 20 years or so??
Dave,
Do you agree that the Caddis was not such a "go to" fly as it seems to be over the last 20 years or so??
Art Flicks' New Streamside Guide from the late 60's was all mayflies, but Dick Pobsts' Trout Stream Insects from the 80's had plenty of caddisflies; so if you knew someone that knew about caddisflies in the 60's & 70's it was ahead of the other 90% of flyfishers. Would probably be better referenced looking at the old FlyFisherman magazines to see when the caddisfly became a standard in many more flyboxes.
My Go-To-Book on Caddis has always been "The Caddisfly Handbook", a Orvis Streamside Guide. Written by Dick Pobst and Carl Richards.
A small (4" x 7") with 131 pages on just about all of the Caddis that a commonly found across the USA. Was printed by Lyons Press, and I bought at a half price book store. Been using it now for almost 15 years, and it has not failed me yet.
The coolest part of the book is Chapter 7, which by coincident has all the caddisfly groups divided int 7 categories for dressing the appropriated dry fly caddis pattern with the correct size hook for the species.
Example:
For the Black Caddis the material list is...
Body: Dark gray dubbing.
Wing: Black or gray hen hackle on Scotch "Magic Tape" cemented using Dave's Filament, folded and clipped to shape
Hook Sizes:
Brachycentrus size 16
Micrasema size 20
Amiocentrus size 20
Glossosoma size 20
Mystacides size 16
Ceraclea size 14
Neophylax size 18
So you have one fly pattern recipe that is used for 7 different species of black caddis on 4 different hook sizes.
It is a good reference. We are sort of discussing the contention I have which is that the caddis fly was not a universally important fly to the majority of fly fishers until perhaps as late as the late 1970's. If true, that is somewhat amazing to me.................
I think that many traditional wet flies and soft hackles are primarily caddis imitations. It was only in the realm of the dry fly that there was any shortage of caddis imitations. The fact that caddis are less often seen drifting along for great distances on the surface probably accounts for this. G.LaFontaine also referred to the myth of the caddis as a super quick emerger that was not readily available to the trout as an emergent adult.
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
Rainbow,
My belief, based on observation and reading, is that often what folks take for a hatch is actually the females returning to lay eggs - often by diving INTO the water vs. a pupa rising from the water.. What do you think??
Byron, I think that LaFaontaine would agree with you. I mostly use adult caddis dries as a searching pattern as they are common on most trout streams and trout will take them opportunistically. I can see them better than a terrestrial. On the Muskegon river where i know there is an almost nightly caddis hatch in the spring I prefer to use a sparkle pupa emarger during the hatch as very few caddis are visible on the water. There is often a simutaneous flight of egg layers so an elk hair caddis can also work especially if it is twitched over the fish. Actually a bi-visible or a renegade works just as well and is easier to fish actively.
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
Depending on the flyfishers knowledge of caddis, where even in a 1969 FlyFisherman there are caddis larvae flies for California & in a 1970 FlyFisherman the bucktail caddis "dry"; along with an ad for "The Hatch Matcher" for eastern & western streams which has a little black caddis, green caddis, etc. & suggests having all stages & sizes to fish with: nymph, wet, dry. Even back in the 50's there were sources for caddis dry flies, but the references were alot fewer & far between as compared to the internet of today, or even caddis encounters on the streams of the 70's & 80's unless it was where the best dry fly fishing was...........most likely secret fly patterns & recipes.
Last edited by saltydancindave; 11-26-2010 at 11:57 PM. Reason: wording
My Fish Finder was created on the mainstream of the Au Sable in Michigan, http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...w/2198fotw.php and was intended to represent a life form, not a specific bug. However, if you really watch it and fish it you will see that the fish take it for either a mayfly or a caddis - and in my opinion prefer it as a caddis especially since you can skate it across the surface. It is truly a fun fly to fish...and isn't that the idea?
Looks like everything but the mule deer hair for caddis dry wings that AJ McClane had in the The Wise Fisherman's Encyclopedia back in the mid 50's, but more better !