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Cased Caddis
By Mike Murgida (mm/Stonefly Nymph), Ohio

This pattern was designed by Oliver Edwards of England and is from his lovely DVD Essential Skills with Oliver Edwards: 1.Czech Nymphing 2. Upstream Nymphing and North Country Spiders, which I highly recommend. Out of all the cased caddis patterns I have seen this is the most realistic one I have found and is rather simple to tie. The tier can modify the color combinations and hook sizes to match any natural on their local rivers and streams.

Materials for the Cased Caddis

    Hook: 2x to 3x long shank medium wire nymph hook example: Partridge H1A in sizes 4/6/8/10.

    Thread: Roman Moser Power Silk in white.

    Caddis Case: Oliver Edwards Caddis Legs (commercial dubbing product) by Jan Siman.

    Peeping Grub: Fine white synthetic yarn or baby wool.

    Legs: Golden Pheasant Center Tail.

    Tinting (optional): The top of the grub can be tinted black or dark brown.

Instructions for the Cased Caddis:

1. Lead the hook with 2 layers of lead tape and leave a little room in the front of the hook unleaded for the peeping grub.

2. Tie in the yarn and create the peeping grub by wrapping forward over the unleaded part of the hook shank and then doubling back to the leaded part.

3. Now spiral down to the end of the shank and tie in your Oliver Edwards Caddis Legs. Then wrap up to the peeping grub and tie off very securely. After that trim the deer hair in the shape of a caddis case.

4. For the legs take your Golden Pheasant center tail and strip off some fibers but strip them off at a right angle to the quill to receive little hooked legs. Tie in your first set on the underside of the hook.

5. Advance further and tie in your second set of legs.

6. And finally your third set.

7. Now flip the fly right side up and whip finish.

That is it…now you have a very realistic cased caddis larva.

Fishing Tips:

Oliver Edwards recommends using the technique of Czech Nymphing for fishing this cased caddis, which is quite strenuous. What I have found to be equally effective is to use it as a single fly and dead drift it through fast water. If you would like to try Czech Nymphing, I recommend you get a copy of Oliver Edwards' Essential Skills. In addition, you can fish this cased caddis as a dropper off an emerging caddis pupa, which also has shown to be effective.

About Mike:

Mike enjoys tying and fishing realistic flies as well as tying them for shops to earn some "fishing money." He is an avid fisherman and fishes for anything from little Ausable River Brown Trout to 20 plus pound Chinook Salmon but his favorite is to fish for selective trout where only a near perfect presentation will get you a hook up...landing it is a whole other story. Mike is a frequent visitor and contributor to the Chat Room (mm) and Bulletin Board as (Stonefly Nymph). He is 13 years old and lives in Ohio. You can reach Mike at: flytyer_07@msn.com

For more great flies, check out: Beginning Fly Tying, Intermediate Fly Tying and Advanced Fly Tying.