CFC October Caddis

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Caught a live one late last week while fishing the Crooked Fork Creek.

Hadn’t seen one for a while. Guess I had forgotten just how leggy these guys are. I had been catching some fish on one of my earlier October Caddis patterns, but wasn’t fully satisfied with the results I was getting and decided to go back to the drawing board.

Found some 3mm foam and some died deer hair at Kesel’s Four Rivers Fly Shop in Missoula Saturday ( nice seeing you there REE and VEE ) in a good color for this local specimen. This fly came off the vice this morning.

Headed on over to the Lochsa this afternoon for a test drive. Didn’t find any trout at the first run I fished, but ended up with six cutts in hand and counted another three or four refusals or misses in not much more than an hour and a half at the second one.

Went upstream to Crooked Fork Creek, to the spot where I took the pic of the October Caddis. There was quite a caddis hatch going on, but just the little guys, not the big ones. Regardless, this guy just slammed the CFC October Caddis. At just about 16", he’s one of the biggest cutts I’ve caught on this creek. Had another one earlier down on the Lochsa that was almost this big.

A few minutes later, I ended the day with this guy, who is pretty typical of the majority of the cutts I caught today.

This is a VERY simple fly to tie, did better than I expected with the low water conditions on these streams, and held up well to eight fish in hand and a total of about two hours on the water.

The fly is tied on a size 10 Dai-Riki 280 2XL hopper hook. Cut a strip of the foam about twice the length of the hook and to width, slightly tapered wider at the rear to narrower at the front of the abdomen. Tied down the abdomen just back of midshank.

Tied in the rear “legs” ( Montana Fly Company centipede legs - small ) and advanced the thread to the wing tie in point, tying down the foam strip on top of the shank as I advanced the thread. Cut, combed, stacked, and cut deer hair wing to length, to extend well beyond the abdomen. Tied in the wing taking a generous number of wraps through the butts to secure it.

After tying in the deer hair wing, I advanced the thread ahead of the foam strip, pulled it back out of the way, and tied in the front “legs” or antennae. Pulled the foam strip forward over the eye then doubled it back to form a bullethead and tied it down.

There are reports of October Caddis on the Blackfoot and Rock Creek. Hmmmmm …

John

2

John,

Nice seeing you too. Much better color on this version of the October Caddis. Truer to the real bug.

Do I see another FOTW offering?

REE

3

John,

Nice pattern & beautiful trout! I haven’t used a lot of foam on any flies until a few years ago. I started to tie foam beetles, liked it, went over board, now have a life time (maybe two life times,LOL!) worth of every color foam imaginable. I usually tie Improved Sofa Pillows for the large caddis, but will have to give your pattern a go. Thanks for sharing.

Best regards, Dave S. ( fishdog54)

4

very nice! thanks for sharing! those are some pretty fishes too!

5

What an easy way to tie all those foam flies of yours - and the nice thing is you publish the proof!

6

Ron -

A successful first outing with a new fly can get it on the Fly Tying Forum.

But it’s gonna have to prove itself a number of times on different streams before getting consideration as a FOTW.

Takes several tying sessions before I settle on a final tying sequence - already changed a couple things tying some for an outing on the Blackfoot tomorrow - but once it “morphs” to a final version and proves it effectiveness, I’ll consider submitting it.

John

7

John, I just looked at the eyes on that critter - would those be a trigger, do you think? It would be easy to stick some of those mono eyes on them, don’t know if it would help.

8

Nice pattern! And noce fish as well. I love the Octobers…the rise is pretty awesome when the fish start keying on them.

We just completed the October Caddis Swap…I’ll be taking the pics of all 9 patterns involved and posting them shortly. A very nice turnout.

Ralph

9

At the 2003 Idaho Fish-In, I dressed some Iridescent October Caddis pattern by Ronn Lucas Sr.!

Found them very effective, and even dress a variation with a bit of pale yellow yarn (that I borrowed from Al Campbell, who was tying across from me in the Rumpus Room), for Montana Moose to try out!

I watched the female October Caddis on the Locha and Selway in the early evening hours, as they lay their eggs in the water. The females did a crash landing on the water surface to dislodge the eggs, then instantly lift off the water to do another crash landing on the water close by. So I use that demonstration for my casting the October Caddis. It worked, the Cutthroats, Rainbows and Cut-bows where striking immediately as the fly pattern hit the water.

This Ronn Lucas Sr. pattern is not available on FAOL you can find it at http://flytyingworld.com/fly-detail-627-IridescentOctoberCaddis.html

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Hook: TMC, 200R, size 10.

Tail: Optional squirrel tail.

Butt: Optional squirrel tail.

Body: Rear 1/3 rust iridescent dubbing, next 1/8" Burgundy iridescent dubbing,
front 1/3 purple iridescent dubbing.

Ribs: Fine copper wire, tied in from in body.

Hackle: Dark Dun, tied in about 3/16’ to 1/4" from eye, two turns.

Wings: Dark deer or elk mane.

Antennae: Stripped dark brown hackle stems.

Note: Ronn Lucas Sr. no longer sells the Iridescent Dubbing listed in the material listing. I bought most of the remaining stock that Ronn Lucas had, so I am willing to share the three Irridescent Dubbing colors called for in the pattern, with members of FAOL who which to dress a few of this pattern. There is no charge for the material and I will pay the postage, just email me at parnelli@comcast.net I will send enough material for 3 or 4 flies, with what I have left. ~Parnelli

10

Very nice fly and beautiful photos!!
Ever put an egg sac at the butt end.

11

Karen -

I don’t think adding eyes to an October Caddis pattern would add a trigger. I think the only things they would add are a tying step and some weight.

Steven -

I wasn’t familiar with Ronn Lucas Sr. so I googled him. In all due respect to one of FAOL’s sponsors, it seems to me that the use of three different materials that he was selling in the Iridescent October Caddis makes it more a sales gimmick than anything else. It may be a good attractor, and I’m glad it worked for you, but it certainly isn’t my kind of fly.

When I first started tying flies, I tied patterns originated by others, or their variations of flies created by some else. I guess I call that approach “applied fly tying.” More recently, I mostly tie and fish my own original patterns which are based on my personal observations, to the extent possible, of the food being eaten by the fish I am chasing. I like to call that approach “applied entomology.”

I don’t consider either of the two approaches better than the other - just different.

Your offer to share your supply of the iridescent dubbing is quite generous.

Byron -

Thank you. No, I haven’t considered an egg sack since I haven’t yet seen an October Caddis at that stage of development and don’t really know what it would look like. Since the abdomen is closed cell foam, it would be easy to add one with the appropriate colored permanent marker.

John

12

… stands for Crooked Fork Creek. I didn’t take a pic of the place I was fishing the October Caddis the other day, but do have a file pic taken a few weeks ago.

Today I fished the Blackfoot River just down from its confluence with the North Fork of the Blackfoot. This was my first time on this stretch of the river. Came upon a long run that just screamed trout.

There weren’t any bugs around and there weren’t any fish rising. But the goal was to see if the CFC October Caddis would catch fishies, and pounding them up would do, if that’s what it took. Which it did. And it did.

Over the course of about two hours, I had something like eight fish come to the fly. Several of them were good sized cutts, only one of which I landed. A couple long distance good byes and one break off made the “release” part of catch and release a breeze.

Not sure what a couple of the others were, although my guess is that they were also cutts. The only other fish I had in hand was a small brown. Nice background for the CFC O. C. in action.

Thought I would mention one thing about fishing on the Lochsa the other day. I reported that I had one pretty good sized cutt there. I forgot to mention that I was fishing over some very slow, very soft, rather deep water and had been distracted. I looked away from the fly for several seconds and my attention was called back to fishing by the pull of the fish starting his first run. That fish had plenty of opportunity to look the fly over closely and eat it or pass. The fact that he thought it was food, not fake, speaks well of the pattern.

Today I didn’t see any October Caddis in the area. I suppose the fish could be taking this fly as a light colored hopper. But I also didn’t see any hoppers in the area. For what it is worth, several of the fish hit the fly as I “skated” it off an otherwise dead drift. That is a tactic often used fishing October Caddis and it worked reasonably well today.

The skating tactic underscores another aspect of this fly - that it is buoyant enough that it can be pulled across a moderate current without sinking it. A hard tug will take it under, but releasing tension on it brings it back to the surface quite quickly. I had been a bit curious about that feature since the fly has a pretty narrow body. Using foam for the extended body ( abdomen ) not only simplified tying the fly, but added an important on-the-water characteristic.

A couple more tests as successful as the initial outing on the Lochsa and Crooked Fork Creek and today’s time on the Blackfoot River, and this fly will be submitted as a FOTW.

John

P.S. Rock Creek tomorrow ??

13

John,

Well done, nice pics; nothing like pounding them up, getting them to eat even when they don’t realize they’re not hungry. Looks like you had some nice late summer weather although that appears to be coming to an end.

Regards,
Scott

14

What’s the difference between this fly and, say, the FEB hopper?

15

… Zac.

The major differences are that the extended body is foam, not furled antron, and the body is quite a bit slimmer. Also, this fly is a bit shorter, although the wing, which is not quite as full, extends further back, and I’m using only rear legs and front legs / antennae rather than the three sets of legs on the hopper.

The tying sequence is similar, although using the extended foam body does simplify it. Thinking about trying foam next year for the previous FEB flies which all had the furled antron bodies.

It does seem to be a process of evolution from JC’s Salmonfly, to the LF Golden Stone, to the FEB Hopper and now the CFC October Caddis. That has also been the “evolution” of my summer - those are about the only flies I have fished for the past four months, and for the most part in that sequence.

The process will come full circle if FEB comes to mean, on the longer term, Foam Extended Body rather than Furled Extended Body.

John

P.S. Maybe I can change the previous versions to FAB flies, for Furled Antron Body - and my experience is that they have all proven fab-ulous.

16

… but it is supposed to come to an end Monday with a 20 plus degree drop in daytime highs, from around 80 to the upper 50’s.

Looks like wet wading will come to an end soon. Dang.

John

17

Fished the CFC October Caddis on Rock Creek in several different places on an interesting variety of water over the course of four plus hours from late morning through mid afternoon. ( The water temps went from downright cold to very comfortable. May have been the last day wet wading this year. ) Saw something over 30 fishies around the fly, hooked about eighteen, and landed most of the trouts hooked.

The trouts were pretty evenly split between browns and bows, and I think one that I lost was a cutt. The majority of the fishies were in the 8"-10" bracket. The big brown is the largest brown I’ve taken on Rock Creek, best I recall anyway.

Actually had a good number of naturals over and on the water most of the time I was fishing. Had something of a laugh over that. Talked to a fellow from Kansas City and showed him the CFC O. C. His reaction - geez, looks just like the flies that have been around all afternoon, got to see a couple fish eat them. Turns out he didn’t know what October Caddis are. Oh well, he is from K. C.

This pattern has passed with flying colors - taking fish on the Lochsa and Crooked Fork Creek under tough conditions, pounding up trouts on the Blackfoot, and doing well on the unusually low water of Rock Creek. I’ll get a FOTW submission prepared and submitted this coming week.

John

18

John,

Sure hated to come back to this side of the Cascades. Hard to leave Montana and Idaho behind. Looking forward to seeing a FOTW. Nice variety of fish you caught, my friend.

REE

19

… of the tying sequence as submitted for FOTW consideration.

Click on the pic.

John

20

VERY nicely done John - I’ve been computerless for several days, (really nasty virus) so I had to go back and read the whole string on this one…gee, really a treat to read. Sometimes I wonder if our readers actually realize the quality of these ‘reports’ here on FAOL…this is just outstanding stuff. I for one sure do appreciate it.
Lots of hugs, one surely won’t do for this one.
LF