I primarily fly fish the rockies from Colorado to YNP in Montana. I want to tie a few simple patterns to represent the larval, pupae, adult and spent stages of the caddis.
I know that most caddis will be 14 to 16. Some smaller, some larger. I will probably tie patterns like Czech type nymphs or Rene Harrops Turkey Cased Caddis for the larval stages. For pupa, I can easily tie Mercer’s Z-Wing or a soft hackle type of fly. For Emergers, the Iris and X Caddis. Adults for heavier water, the Elk Hair will probably be choice. The egglaying or spent stages will probably be patterns tied by Blue Ribbon Flies.
What colors of dubbing do you label as must have, in order to tie pupal patterns for western waters? I know that green, olive, and tan would be the primary colors for a lot of caddis. What am I missing?
Might want black. The little black caddis hatch on the Madison has screwed me up many times - convinced they’re taking the #16 tan and it turns out the smaller black is what they really want. PT has a good pattern:
Either beg, buy, borrow, steal, or check out a copy of Gary LaFontaine’s “CADDISFLIES” from your local library. If they don’t have it, they can get it for you on Inter Library Loan. It will answer all of your questions.
Bear in mind that in a lot of places, maybe most, getting THAT specific will actually cut down on the number of fish you catch. Most of the rougher freestone rivers have some of this and some of that hatching during the summer, and trying to match one thing won’t attract as many fish as something with some peacock herl and other similar strike triggers.
An old fisherman in AZ told me he had learned 80% of what a trout eats is 3/8" long and some shade of brown. I cannot verify or deny that information but he was the kind of a guy who would go out with a rod and a fly box in his shirt pocket and come back with fish.
