The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
Caddis
Easy - 1-3 Min
Coldwater
The only real substitution is the body and while micro midge tubing is the primary option, you can use any rubber tubing like what you use for rubberlegs for any pattern with legs. You can also use wire in a pinch, but at that point you’re really tying a brassie or something closer to that than a buckskin.
This bug is ultra simple and ultra realistic. All three components of this fly are useful, good things to have at your bench so it’s worth grabbing them on your next material run.
This fly has two variations that are worth looking into. First, instead of building the head using black thread, go ahead and tie in a few strands of Peacock Herl and wrap them to form a head. The iridescent sheen of the Peacock Herl can provide a good subtle flash that helps to attract the fish.
The second variation is using some sort of variegated rubberlegs or using a marker to color the tubing/rubberlegs. For example, I find free form caddis that are olive have darker backs than their underside. So I use a light olive rubber to make the body, then come over with a black marker or dark olive marker if I can find one and color the top. Once it dries it stays well colored. You can also used barred rubber and as you wrap it, it will make a mottled look that isn’t so standardized in color profile and can be a good choice as well.
I like to think about the allure of this fly like a cold boiled shrimp. If you were in a restaurant and had the choice between peeled shrimp and unpeeled shrimp, the choice would be obvious, you want the shrimp peeled for you. The same goes for trout and caddis. A trout doesn’t want the caddis in it’s casing, it would much rather eat the caddis larva out of the casing. This fly is an easy choice for the fish when caddis is what they’re keyed in on. The cream colored body, and dark head play perfectly together to form a very effective caddis pattern.
The key benefits of this pattern are the slim profile, ease of tying and affordability. You gotta love flies like that.
Trout love caddis, they are a staple in their diet. Fishing this fly in near the bottom in a nymph rig can produce great results as long as you get it down with some weight. It can also be a great producer when your fishing a caddis dry fly, and need a dropper nymph to go underneath it. Fish that are wary of the dry fly have been known to grow fond of the old buckskin rather quickly.
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Caddis Sizes: #10 - #22
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Copyright © 2003 – 2025 MidCurrent LLC, All Rights Reserved.