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#1
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Two years ago, I tried to duplicate the female Hydropsyche caddis egg
layer as she dives down, releases eggs, drifts along, then swims back up. I tried creating a pattern and fishing it in this down, drift, and up but I didn't get a sniff. Into the "failure" bin it went. Well, I'm out today on Whitemans Creek and there's nada happening. I'm doing the minimalist thing so I have very little in the way of different flies to try. But I do have the faliure. So I gave it a "what the hell" and instead of deading drifting, I swing it. Actually, I'm casting across stream, dead drifting, then swinging. True to form, the dead drift still scores nada. But oh my, does it get attention on the swing. The fly is tied on a heavy wire hook and that proved to be a problem for getting good hooksets on Whitemans little rainbows so the next batch will be a lead wrapped light wire but I must've had in excess of 50 hits, about 20 hookups and a dozen or so landed. Can't wait to do a Rhyachophillia for the Rapid. ![]() http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/caddis-diver.jpg In this picture, the wing edges are straight across but I V'ed them when I fished it. Hook: Kamasan B175 or Mustad 3906 Thread: 8/0 Uni-thread tan Rib: Fine Gold Wire Body: Light tan rabbit Hackle: Gray Hungarian Partridge Wing: Light Gray Turkey Quill Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
#2
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forgot some things . . .
I'm calling it a searching pattern as I simply swing it through riffles, looking for fish -- there's not much targeting going on. If I had wished, after getting hits and no hookups, I could've switched over to another type fly and hope for better hookup results. The fly did squat in slow current -- it needed faster water. It even picked up fish in very fast chutes -- the only decent fish and only brown was hooked and LDRed in a very fast chute. The 50 hits is a very conservative estimate -- some fish were whacking it three and four times. At first I though "chubs" but all but one of the fish that I hooked up, landed or saw, were rainbows. These are baby steelies, first, second, and third year fish where the oldest run 8" to 10" -- a lot of fun on a 2/3 wt. I've had days on Whitemans where I've had a lot of hits but never on the same fly like this. I'll be trying it on the Grand for browns as well -- the upstream end of Frustration Flats should give it a workout. I think the approach should work for any caddis species where the females dive to lay eggs then swim back up. Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
#3
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forgot some things . . .
I'm calling it a searching pattern as I simply swing it through riffles, looking for fish -- there's not much targeting going on. If I had wished, after getting hits and no hookups, I could've switched over to another type fly and hope for better hookup results. The fly did squat in slow current -- it needed faster water. It even picked up fish in very fast chutes -- the only decent fish and only brown was hooked and LDRed in a very fast chute. The 50 hits is a very conservative estimate -- some fish were whacking it three and four times. At first I though "chubs" but all but one of the fish that I hooked up, landed or saw, were rainbows. These are baby steelies, first, second, and third year fish where the oldest run 8" to 10" -- a lot of fun on a 2/3 wt. I've had days on Whitemans where I've had a lot of hits but never on the same fly like this. I'll be trying it on the Grand for browns as well -- the upstream end of Frustration Flats should give it a workout. I think the approach should work for any caddis species where the females dive to lay eggs then swim back up. Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
#4
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On Sun, 1 Aug 2004, Peter Charles wrote:
But oh my, does it get attention on the swing. I've only had limited success with that. Anyone out there have generic clues as to where and when this techniques is effective? Mu __________________________________________________ _____________________ \ Mu Young Lee remove all dashes and underscores in reply address |
#5
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On Sun, 1 Aug 2004, Peter Charles wrote:
But oh my, does it get attention on the swing. I've only had limited success with that. Anyone out there have generic clues as to where and when this techniques is effective? Mu __________________________________________________ _____________________ \ Mu Young Lee remove all dashes and underscores in reply address |
#6
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The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT nymph.
-- Cut "to the chase" for my email address. |
#7
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The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT nymph.
-- Cut "to the chase" for my email address. |
#8
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On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:36:08 -0600, rw
wrote: The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT nymph. Funny, I don't think of nymphing as being much of a searching method. Nymphing is usually confined to seams, runs, and the deeper slots, though of course, it can be used almost anywhere. It's usually applied to features where the fish are concentrated. Swinging wets and streamers explores the margins, the shallows plus it covers way more water. Fish are also more likely to move to the swung fly. Yesterday, I could swing the fly a dozen times through the head of a riffle and get nothing, then a few feet further and I'd be swining through a fish holding area and hit after hit. There probably was a slight depression in that area and the fish were holding in it, yet it wasn't apparent just by looking at the riffle and I'm sure most nymphers would have walked right by it as it was totally unremarkable. Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
#9
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On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:36:08 -0600, rw
wrote: The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT nymph. Funny, I don't think of nymphing as being much of a searching method. Nymphing is usually confined to seams, runs, and the deeper slots, though of course, it can be used almost anywhere. It's usually applied to features where the fish are concentrated. Swinging wets and streamers explores the margins, the shallows plus it covers way more water. Fish are also more likely to move to the swung fly. Yesterday, I could swing the fly a dozen times through the head of a riffle and get nothing, then a few feet further and I'd be swining through a fish holding area and hit after hit. There probably was a slight depression in that area and the fish were holding in it, yet it wasn't apparent just by looking at the riffle and I'm sure most nymphers would have walked right by it as it was totally unremarkable. Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
#10
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On Mon, 2 Aug 2004 02:13:43 -0400, Mu Young Lee
wrote: On Sun, 1 Aug 2004, Peter Charles wrote: But oh my, does it get attention on the swing. I've only had limited success with that. Anyone out there have generic clues as to where and when this techniques is effective? Mu I think you have to get to know the caddis in your river. If you have diving egg-layers and emergers that move laterally as well as up, then your odds are better. I like caddis because they tend to come off in these long, sporadic hatches rather than in the one, 20 minute blizzard common to mayflies. There's always some caddis action going on, even if it's only a few egg layers. Yesterday, there's hardly a caddis to be seen yet the continual yet sporadic, egg-laying action keeps the trout interested. I've never had a day quite like it before. As far as the swing goes with this pattern, the first third dead drifted didn't produce a single hit. The middle third where tension comes on then fly and it accelerates towards the middle of the creek produced about 40% of the hits and the last third, where the fly was slowing down, produced the bulk. Peter turn mailhot into hotmail to reply Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html |
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