Caddis searching pattern - from failure to success

The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT nymph.

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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

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rw wrote:

The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT
nymph.


I would agree as a general searching pattern but for a caddis specific
one, I vote for a soft hackle hands down.

Willi

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

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rw wrote:

The best caddis searching pattern, if I had to pick just one, is a PT
nymph.


I would agree as a general searching pattern but for a caddis specific
one, I vote for a soft hackle hands down.

Willi

Peter Charles wrote:

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.



Glad to hear you're getting out!

I find that it's common to miss fish on a fly fished on the swing or
with any type of action for that matter. I agree that fine wire hooks
will help with hookups.

You might try a simple soft hackle pattern in the same size and colors
ie. no wing, instead. I'm guessing that it would be just as effective
while being easier to tie.

Willi

On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 12:22:12 -0600, Willi wrote:



Glad to hear you're getting out!

I find that it's common to miss fish on a fly fished on the swing or
with any type of action for that matter. I agree that fine wire hooks
will help with hookups.

You might try a simple soft hackle pattern in the same size and colors
ie. no wing, instead. I'm guessing that it would be just as effective
while being easier to tie.


You read my mind -- I'm thinking about the same fly sans wing --
however - - - -

When this fly is held in the current, I get a very natural V shape
wing in the water. I think the wing may say "caddis" more loudly,
when viewed from underneath. We can never know exactly what makes a
trout strike one particular fly over another, though we can usually
make some decent inferences. So . . . I'm loathed to tamper with it
as it appears to work as is.

My brown trout weamer works. Every, and I do mean every modification
I've made to that fly to "improve" it in some way, has reduced its
effectiveness, sometimes to the point of zero. I go back to the
original and good things happen all over again.

Peter

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Peter Charles wrote:

You read my mind -- I'm thinking about the same fly sans wing --
however - - - -

When this fly is held in the current, I get a very natural V shape
wing in the water. I think the wing may say "caddis" more loudly,
when viewed from underneath. We can never know exactly what makes a
trout strike one particular fly over another, though we can usually
make some decent inferences. So . . . I'm loathed to tamper with it
as it appears to work as is.

My brown trout weamer works. Every, and I do mean every modification
I've made to that fly to "improve" it in some way, has reduced its
effectiveness, sometimes to the point of zero. I go back to the
original and good things happen all over again.


Good points.

Although I'm not too big on using specific patterns, I do have some
favorites that just seem right. These are consistant producers for me. I
think it's partly because I have confidence in them but I also think
there's something about them that makes them special.

Willi

Peter Charles wrote:

You read my mind -- I'm thinking about the same fly sans wing --
however - - - -

When this fly is held in the current, I get a very natural V shape
wing in the water. I think the wing may say "caddis" more loudly,
when viewed from underneath. We can never know exactly what makes a
trout strike one particular fly over another, though we can usually
make some decent inferences. So . . . I'm loathed to tamper with it
as it appears to work as is.

My brown trout weamer works. Every, and I do mean every modification
I've made to that fly to "improve" it in some way, has reduced its
effectiveness, sometimes to the point of zero. I go back to the
original and good things happen all over again.


Good points.

Although I'm not too big on using specific patterns, I do have some
favorites that just seem right. These are consistant producers for me. I
think it's partly because I have confidence in them but I also think
there's something about them that makes them special.

Willi

On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 12:22:12 -0600, Willi wrote:



Glad to hear you're getting out!

I find that it's common to miss fish on a fly fished on the swing or
with any type of action for that matter. I agree that fine wire hooks
will help with hookups.

You might try a simple soft hackle pattern in the same size and colors
ie. no wing, instead. I'm guessing that it would be just as effective
while being easier to tie.


You read my mind -- I'm thinking about the same fly sans wing --
however - - - -

When this fly is held in the current, I get a very natural V shape
wing in the water. I think the wing may say "caddis" more loudly,
when viewed from underneath. We can never know exactly what makes a
trout strike one particular fly over another, though we can usually
make some decent inferences. So . . . I'm loathed to tamper with it
as it appears to work as is.

My brown trout weamer works. Every, and I do mean every modification
I've made to that fly to "improve" it in some way, has reduced its
effectiveness, sometimes to the point of zero. I go back to the
original and good things happen all over again.

Peter

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Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html