Green Butt (egg sack) pattern. Using Kelly Galloup's Butch Caddis pattern

[Byron haugh]

We were discussing the colors of insect egg sacks (ova). Someone mentioned a caddis pattern which breaks the surface to swim below and deposit her eggs.

The basic Butch Caddis (w/o legs) was designed by Kelly Galloup to allow the fly to be pulled beneath the water and expected to return to the surface and float.

To achieve this, it has regular, fine tipped deer hair for the wing, above the under-wing of zelon; the hollow butts of that same deer hair as an additional over-wing; and a "bullet head" .....all to provide buoyancy.

I also added UV Pearl Ice Dub.

Apologies for some of the fly being out of focus!

[john52948]

Byron,

I used to tie something similar to the pattern shown, except I would use snowshoe rabbit for the body, head, and wing. I found that if I kinda slammed it into the water, the fly would sink below the water surface, and then slowly rise to the surface again. after a few fish it would get water logged and not float, but a quick coat of aquel would get it floating again.

[Byron haugh]

John,
It doesn't really show in the photo, but beneath the deer hair butt ends wing is the deer hair tips wing. I have tied this pattern before, but was having such good "luck" with the X-Caddis that I never tested it's continuing float ability after being pulled under to imitate the egg layers.

[whatfly]

Good tie but that "egg sack" could easily be confused for a shuck, so this could just as easily be a crippled pattern. Ultimately we never really know why the fish takes the fly, but that is half the fun of course.

[Byron haugh]

The green zelon was cut much shorter than a shuck would have been.
Again, Kelly designed it to be pulled under to represent the egg laying female with her ova.

I guess if the trout were confused and didn't notice it was a wrong colored shuck, that would make it a double-trouble pattern?

Being at rear of hook helps a bit with buoyancy

[whatfly]

Sigh. You missed the point. Yes, I understand why Kelly designed the fly the way he did, but does that mean the trout take it for the same reason? Does the color really matter in this case or is the crippled profile more important for a dry? What makes you think the trout will only take a fly with a shuck of the proper length? What makes you think the right color matters? Maybe the fly would work even better with a pink sack/shuck.

To me the more important question is does the fly work, and there are so many variables involved in that equation, tweaking one small factor, one that could easily be confounded by another (or two) in this case (i.e. sack v. shuck), to me anyway, is not going to "prove" anything. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary.