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LaFontaine's Caddis Larva We recently lost Gary LaFontaine, who was a superb author and creative fly tyer. His book on Caddis insects and patterns and his video tape on the subject are authoritative. Gary�s sense of humor, and his common sense approach will be sorely missed. We have all seen, when turning rocks over in a stream bed, the little green wormlike creatures squirming around. Many of these are un-cased caddis larvae. This month�s featured fly is a good, simple imitation of that insect, which at certain times gets "into the drift". Trout will key on them during these periods, and unless the angler realizes what�s going on, it can be very frustrating. One way to get "one up" is to hold your seine net in the current; if you accumulate a bunch of these in the net, change to a fly that imitates a drifting "rockworm." |
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Materials
Hook: Tiemco 200; Daiichi 1260; or equivalent, #10-16 Thread: Black 6/0 or 8/0 Rib: Stripped brown hackle stem Body: Bright green antron dubbing Thorax: Brown antron dubbing Legs: Brown grouse or partridge hackle fibers Weight: Lead or substitute (optional) |
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Instructions
1. Cover hook with thread and wrap weight; if using lead, gauge it to the size of the hook (i.e., smaller hook = finer lead wire). 5 to 6 wraps should suffice. Note: weight is optional; some flyfishers believe that weight "kills the action of the fly." You be the judge. 2. Take a supple stemmed brown hackle and strip the barbules from it, leaving only the brown stem. Tie in the tip (thinner) end of the stem just above the back of the barb of the hook. Leave it there for now. 3. Dub a nice thin body of bright green antron dubbing, leaving the front 1/4 of the hook for the thorax. 4. Rib the body with the brown hackle stem, and tie off the rib material at the same spot where the body ended. 5. Dub on a sparse looking thorax covering most of the remaining 1/4 of the hook. 6. Turn the fly over in the vise, and tie on a sparse "beard" style hackle, which should be no longer than sufficient to fall just short of the point of the hook. 7. Whip finish and put this creature into the drift. (Hint: try fishing it in a two or three fly rig, and add or subtract weight to compensate for depth and flow conditions). |
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