The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning
Caddis, Cranefly
Easy - 1-3 Min
Coldwater
This is a simple and easy pattern and no real substitutions necessary. There are a few substitutions if you don’t have the materials:
This is the base for nearly all free form caddis nymphs and the variations are pretty endless. You can add in a tail that is short and stubby, change wire and dubbing colors for a variety of looks and variations, and add beadheads to the variations as well. Lastly, you can add thin skin or some sort of rubber material over the back to make it a little more translucent too. Our common variations we do are:
The caddis larva best imitates a free form caddis or if tied in brown, it can imitate a cased caddis (see pics below). It’s a great pattern because caddis larva are always in the water and trout are often willing to eat them regardless of the season. As the water temps warm, these insects become much more active and become much more important. During the late spring to early fall, this is an excellent pattern that is a go to in my box because the fish are always up for a meal similar to this one. Though it most accurately looks like a caddis larva/nymph, it can impressionistically imitate a variety of other nymphs in the water and most noteably a cranefly larva when tied in sizes #6 – 12.
As with all caddis nymphs, fishing them in the strike zone near the bottom is key. These are net building caddis and hold on tight to the bottom. If they get dislodge however, they float for a while until they find the bottom again as they are pretty poor swimmers.
I’d recommend having two of these on a nymph rig. A heavier first fly and a lighter point fly. That seems to get the best of both worlds with a bottom dragging option and one floating just above the bottom.
| General Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
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Caddis Sizes: #10 - #22
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| General Hatch Chart | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Cranefly Sizes: #8 - #16
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