August Caddis

An August evening. It means a possibility of caddis hatch where you live. They are rhyacophila, one of the two caddis species you know by name. They hatch after sunset. Last time you were here it didn’t happen.



There was some good fishing soon after 6 pm. when you arrived, but then it has been quiet. You take a break, eat your egg-bacon-sandwich.

Start again, fish a small streamer with soft hackle dropper. You start catching small trout. Replace the streamer with a size 16 caddis pupa. It’s getting dark, and the trout are everywhere. The best fly is a dry fly, green bodied Deer Hair Sedge.


When it is too dark to see your fly, you switch back to pupa pattern and feel the trout taking it. And when they stop, you stop.

You lived again.

Deep Sparkle Pupa Variation

My favourite caddis pupa pattern is Gary LaFontaine's Deep Sparkle Pupa. Green has been most effective color for me. I have replaced the hackle fibres of the original pattern with lively CDC fibres. This fly is fast to tie and ugly enough for trout to love it.

In the darkest hour of the brightest night

A midnight in June. I recall it in vivid fragments.

The cold moistness of wet hands, the roar of powerful rapids above, and the silvery water, full of tiny air bubbles, flowing rapidly in a strong run.

They are background for the real show.

Heart stops beating when a trout—a big one, it is no place for small trout—rockets out of the strongest current straight up, turns in the air and descents back into the water. Heart beats again. Fast. A moment later it happens again, then another fish, and another, and then the biggest and stoutest of all. They are perfect.

It lasted about 30 minutes.

No.

It lasted a lifetime.

The 12th Hour

You close your eyes. It’s about 6 am in the morning and you’ve been fishing since 7 pm previous day. At some point you were too tired to fish so you sat eyes blanked at campfire, ate a few sausages with mustard, and drank two beers. Then, while the others went sleeping or left, you continued fishing. And you landed trout. A good one, too.



The river is located between lakes, as most rivers of the region, and has only two sections that are fishable without boat. Runs are short, wide, and extremely strong. But so are its trout: short, stout, and extremely strong. In here, where you live, they are legendary. A lot of fishermen come after these trout but only a few catch them.

You’ve been awake for almost 24 hours. You have been fishing for about 11 hours with only a few small breaks. You have a tent but no sleeping bag. Somehow the idea of driving home to sleep lured its way to your mind and you actually took off your leaking waders, sat behind the wheel and started driving. Driving at this mental stage is not a wise decision; it’s an act of insanity. Your mind paid no attention to such introspection. But, instead of driving home, you drove to the other river section.

You’ve somehow managed to dodge the crowd. First, in the evening, you selected different river section than most of other fishermen, and now in the morning, you were just about to drive home but decided to check the crowded section before you leave and found out that there was only one car left. So, instead of leaving, you sit behind the wheel with your eyes closed. You try to recall all the moments of last hours but memories are fussy. After a minute or two you hear engine starting and the car drives away. You are alone in a great trout stream.

A moment later you are gazing the river from bridge. A pocket water section looks tempting. You tie on John Goddard’s famous caddis dry fly and Lennart Berqvist’s pupa pattern. You figure that the English pattern will be a very attractive indicator and the Swedish pattern would be the choice of a picky trout.

When you get into the water and start casting you notice that you can’t see your indicator fly from roughness of the surface. Sleep deprivation isn’t helping either. But this is what you love so you keep on fishing.

Mind and body become separated. Body is fishing; mind is dreaming and enjoying the ride.

Suddenly you see a flash of light below the surface.

“Hey! That looked like a fish!” your concussions mind says with astonishment.

“No kidding.” subconscious mind would reply if it could talk. While conscious mind is speaking, subconscious mind is acting: right hand raises the rod and left hand pulls the line.

“I’m getting good at this!” says the conscious mind.

“You are getting good at this?” would be the answer.



You get back into the car and start driving home. An hour later you stop the car, close your eyes and fall to sleep.

Caddis Larva

From Life

It's a size 12 olive caddis larva.

From Fly-patterns

Winter's Magic. Tied by Levern Burm

From Fly-patterns

Hook: TMC 3761/3769
Abdomen: Holographic tinsel
Thorax/under wing: Cascade crest trilobal synthetic hackle, chartreuse
(1 turn)
Wing: Black hackle (1-2 turns)

This is a good looking caddis pupa pattern. I will make a bunch of these for the next summer.

Bugs

“It’s a fabulously ugly fly, cheap and quick to make, and very effective. … The Hare’s Ear Soft Hackle passes for a caddis pupa … but is in fact an all-purpose “bug” in the sense that a five-year-old kid would use that word. I think same way: both are capable of intense, single-minded observation, but they see the essence of a thing rather than the details.”

       John Gierach, Trout Bum (1986)

Originally Partridge feather is used for hackle, in 1986 Gierach recommends cheaper Indian Hen necks, in 2007 I use genetic Whiting's Brahma Hen Soft Hackle: simply because hackle stems are so strong that they don’t break all the time.

From Fly-patterns

A pile of buggy flies.
Some of them will soon be shipped to a friend in Alaska.

Mainstream caddis pupa pattern: Viagra Caddis

From Fly-patterns

This is a Viagra Caddis pupa as tied by Levern Burm. I see this fly as a sample of today's mainstream fly tying. If I look at today's fly fishing magazines I see many patterns like this. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is good looking fly that has lot of qualities of good fly patterns -- Bead: to get attention, Right shape: to be accepted.

Hare's Ear Soft Hackle

From Fly-patterns

It is easy to tie and trout, grayling and I like it. One of my best flies in 2005, but I didn't use it much last summer. It is a generic caddis pupa pattern. If you are not sure what fly to use, try this one.

X-Caddis

I love caddis patterns. They are very important in my waters although caddisflies may not be as beautiful as mayflies. One of my favourite emerging mayfly pattern is Sparkle Dun. This pattern in very similar to tie as X-Caddis. I like simple patterns best, so I added few X-Caddis emergers to my selection.

Sparkle Dun

From Fly-patterns

X-Caddis

From Fly-patterns

Caddis

Red Tag

We are going to Kuusamo after two weeks and I tied few grayling patterns just in case. One of the most famous grayling patterns of the world is the Red Tag.

Here is a variation of Red Tag by Finnish master fly-tier Veli Autti. This variation creates more caddis pupa shape for the fly and adds some weight.

Red Tag (variation by Veli Autti)
Thread: Brown
Hook: Grubber size 10, (here size 12 heavy wire grubber hook).
Tail: Fl. orange red wool (here fl. orange antron yarn).
Body: Peacock herl over lead wire, almost reverse tapered; caddis style.
Hackle: Partridge (here mottled grey Hen). Cut fibers from top.
Head: Working thread, this fly has a real head, so it is bit over-sized by mainstream fly tying standards.

Fly selection - Part 2: Caddis pupa

During the fall I think a lot about my fly selection. This is good time to read my fishing diary and make fly tying agenda for the winter.

Last year I had a single caddis pattern. Well, actually I had few others as well, but I mainly fished with only single caddis pattern. That pattern was Green Deep Sparkle Pupa and it worked very well.

This year I tried multiple patterns. (Check the previous post.) For some reason I didn’t tie any Green Deep Sparkle Pupas and came to the conclusion that I should have tied those ugly little bugs.

Now, as the season is ending I have a choice to make for next year. Should I return back to single pattern or use multiple ones? The answer is actually easy, I go with multiple patterns. Why? Because there are many different caddis pupae present during the season and I believe that they are best presented with different patterns – at very least I need different sizes and colors of single pattern.

Lead it deep

This morning I had chance to do some fly fishing with my cousin Niko. He is my regular fly fishing partner, but this was only the second time in this season that he was able to go fishing. This is because Niko - as well as his friend and our mutual fishing partner Mika - are building houses for their families. They both also have small children so with the building project, family and work, they just are running out of fishing time.

We had some nice conversations, but did not do very well in the actual fishing part. There was some mayfly and caddis fly activity, but only few raising fish. My start was good however as I pulled first grayling in first or second cast from spot where I usually get my first fish. Grayling was small, only about 25 cm or 10 inches. It accepted #14 Superpupa with green body - a fly pattern which is showing some promise. But after this first fish, I did not manage to hook any fish for few hours. Time was running out - we had a work day ahead of us. I was fishing under the bridge and decided to add few split shots to my rig of bead head nymph with a streamer dropper. I changed my technique from downstream swing to nymphing. I didn’t add any strike indicator but fished with a short tight line. With tight line technique I keep my stick not high - as in high stick nymphing - but very near the water surface.

After few minutes of serious fly fishing I felt a strong fish and to my surprise it was not a trout but a grayling. It took another few minutes before it was in my net. This grayling was about 38 cm or 15 inches. It happens at times that even I stop banging my head to the wall and do something right for a change.

Don’t I just look Good with my fit-over Polaroid’s?

I should have tied the Green ones

Last season I used Green Deep Sparkle Pupa pattern and I was very happy with the results. For this season I made both Yellow and Olive variant of Deep Sparkle Pupa and Emergent Sparkle Pupa patterns in various sizes. For some reason I did not do any Green Sparkle Pupas. Well I have catched some trouts with my Sparkle Pupas but their success has not been anywhere near what it was last season. I should have tied the Green ones.

Instead, I tied Edwards Pupas and Tabou Caddis Emergers. Again a few fish, but nothing remarkable. Last week I even tied some Supar Pupas. I'm going to give them a try tonight, but I have a feeling that they don't work for me. I have even prepared some silicone bodies for pupa patterns because we all know that silicone can do miracles.

But the problem is not in the different patterns. It is in me. In this season the streamers are working so well for me that I don't fish good with pupa patterns. I also do well with dry flies, but pupas don't work.

I should have tied the Green ones.

Anticipation

I feel light tickling in my finger tips. I am going fishing tonight. Is this the night when that big trout gently takes my emerging caddis pattern?

At this time of the year, rhyacophila caddis is hatching in my local rivers after sunset. Fish are everywhere. I can hear them splashing yet it is hard to see them. All casts I perform are more or less random.

However it is quite possible that tickling sensation in my fingertips results from lack of nicotine as I haven't smoked a single cigar in eight days... And worst still, it is possible that there is no hatch tonight.

Caddisfly Hatch

There was heavy caddisfly hatch last night. Mostly egg-laying females I think.

Orange bodied Klinkhämmer worked well, but this trout accepted a streamer.

Nice fishing!

Caddis Emerger

It is fly tying evening at the club tonight again. I think I will be tying some Tabou Caddis Emergers. It is a new fly pattern for me. I have some caddis emerger patterns (Emergent Sparkle Pupa and Klinkhammer), but this thing looks so good that I couldn't resist buying one "Whiting's Brahma Hen Soft Hackle with Chick-A-Bou"...