Cheater Caddis

(Click on the image to get a much, much larger jpeg version)

Materials

Hook: Nymph/Streamer 3x long (e.g. Mustad 9672)

Thread: black

Body: A discarded October Caddis case

Thorax: creamish yellow wool, then black wool

Hackle: long, webby black saddle

Tying Instructions

1.

In the fall, as the October Caddis are hatching, you more than likely can find discarded cases in slack water, newly exposed islands, etc. You should grab a couple of these and stick them in one of your flyboxes. You could steal the case off a living larva, however if you are going to go through all that trouble, you might as well just jam a hook through it and use it for bait... Not that this fly is much different from using bait... Hmm, come to think of it, maybe if you use any kind of realistic fly at all, you are coming pretty close to using bait... um... nevermind...

2.

Take your empty case, and dip it in a thinned solution of shoe goo (shoe goo thinned with toluene) for strength. It may be a good idea to do this a few times, letting it dry after each dipping, just to make sure the thing is strong enough...

3.

Because these cases are usually curved, you will probably have to bend your hook a bit to get it to fit the case right. Usually something like 10-20 degrees, about 60% of the way up from the bend. Notice there will be a small hole in the case's posterior. Insert the eye of the hook through this hole, and all the way through to the other side. You may have to make the hole slightly bigger -- nobody will mind. Once the case is in place, with its posterior right at the hook bend, place a drop of epoxy there to hold the case in place. You will want this to dry so that the hook is centered in the other opening, so you might want to stick something in there to hold it while the epoxy dries.

4.

Now that the case is dry and in place, you should fill it up a bit past halfway with some more epoxy, to fill the hollow space. Let that dry.

5.

OK, with all the preparation done, you are finally ready to tie the actual fly! Attach the thread to the hook, and tie in the wool.

6.

So you should start wrapping the actual body of the fly. The effect you are going for is that of a soft bodied insect sticking out of the case a bit. A problem with this is that somehow you need to get the wool inside the case. Easily done. With each wrap of wool, carefully stuff the loop inside the case. Sort of analogous to packing spun deer hair. Don't worry if the body is a bit lumpy, if you look at the actual bug, you'll see that its lumpy too. The creamish, fat part of the body should only extend out a little bit from the case. You need to make sure there's room for the legs & head.

7.

Speaking of which, tie off the yellow wool, and tie in the black hackle and black wool. Make a few turns of the black wool, (this part should be thinner than the yellow part...) then tie it off.

8.

Make a few turns of the hackle to simulate legs. You want them to be fairly long and webby. The real bugs wave their legs around all over the place when they are free of the bottom, so the more motion the better. Tie it off, and finish off the head. It should be fairly large. You may also wish to trim the hackle on the top of the fly, as I have yet to see a natural that has a set of legs there. I don't think it really matters though...

9.

Sit and ponder the simplicity and elegance of flyfishing compared to bait fishing...

dmason@zebu.uoregon.edu