October Caddis ...

[JohnScott]

... are a couple months away, right ??

Kind of. Last year, on my Home Water, the adults started appearing in mid to late September, which all of a sudden isn't that far off.

Thanks to ScottP's thread last year on this big fall caddis, I did a bit more reading about it than I had done in prior years fishing water where this caddis was really not much of a factor. One thing that struck me was the possibilities that shoud exist with a Cased October Caddis larva.

Tied a new version a couple days ago and fished it today. Three fishies on it.



Unfortunately, I lost the fly ( the only one I tied ) just after catching this fishy. Will tie another one and post a pic in the next couple days.

For the time being, it is a very simple tie - curved nymph hook with a shank length of about 1", about ten wraps of .035" non lead wire, two cheniles - a varigated brown and tan and a dark brown, wrapped alternately from the bend to about a 1/4" behind the eye, some dark brown dubbing for the head, with two flex floss legs on each side, but with each individual leg split to create more leggy stuff and more movement.

The chenile colors should be matched to the Cased October Caddis in the stream you are going to fish. Later in the summer, when the caddis dump their cases getting ready to hatch, the case ( abdomen ) should be slimmed down and tied in a light, creamy pink, off yellow, or soft orange to match the local variety. The head and legs could be tied the same as the Cased larva, but last year I used some CDL for a dark soft hackle effect and caught some fishies with it. I'll probably go that route this year.

John