The Day Drifter caddis: A More Lifelike Peeping Caddis Fly Featuring a Caddis Worm That's Got Legs скачать в хорошем качестве

The Day Drifter caddis: A More Lifelike Peeping Caddis Fly Featuring a Caddis Worm That's Got Legs

Most rivers in the West have a Brachycentrus (occidentalis) hatch starting in later April that peaks in May called the Mother's Day hatch. This hatch is increasingly important for daytime fly fishers in that Brachycentrus is now recognized as a cased caddis that drifts during the daylight hours and not just at sunrise & sunset. A Brachycentrus larva looks like a worm with six joined legs. The caddis worm color varies from chartreuse & pastel shades of green that lighten all the way to a cream color in some individuals. Brachycentrus uses the locally available sodden plant debris that are assembled into a stick-built chimney-like case. The debris is held together by a silk-like material the caddis itself excretes. On the Upper Arkansas River where I fish are the cases are mostly very dark brown. In the video, Brachycentrus cases from other rivers are seen as banded tan & brown stick-built chimney-like tubes. Not widely utilized is the fact that the worm is not fixed in its case & can extract itself out of its case if needed. The often brightly colored larva has been observed sliding in and out its case, so that as it drifts it can signal a flashing color to the trout. The larva also holds its legs well out from its body as it forages for food. It is these natural extensions of the worm body and legs out of the case that the Day Drifter caddis mimics. The peeking caddis pattern was developed by George Anderson circa 1970s to imitate the Brachycentrus of the Mother's Day Caddis hatch on the Yellowstone River (www.swtu.org/2017/10/03/peeking-caddis/). Reportedly, Anderson thought the key to a successful cased caddis pattern was it had to convince trout that the case contained a living caddis worm. To represent the worm Anderson tied in a greenish dubbing band just ahead of the brownish case. Hence the name “Peeking Caddis” is used for a fly tied wholly on the hook shank. The style of this fly tied with a caddis worm extending out over the hook bend is called the “Peeping Caddis.” Recipe: Hook: I like to use 2x wide gap hooks with a 1cm shank length--like the Firehole 633 or Tiemco 206 size 12-14 to imitate fully mature cased caddis. Smaller hook sizes are used to imitate less mature larva. Thread: SemperFli Nano-silk brown 30 denier. Ribbing: UTC Ultrawire amber color in small (0.1- 0.15mm) size. If a darker case is desired, use black wire. Caddis Worm: Take an old chartreuse, pale green or cream, colored fly line and, using pliers, strip off about 5-6 mm of the fly line’s PVC coating to expose the Dacron core. Use a bodkin to tease apart the fibers of the exposed Dacron core. Color the exposed fibers and cut butt end of the PVC fly line dark brown using a permanent marker. The color of the fly line itself can changed using a green marker. Finish the caddis worm by using thin point scissors to cut the middle fibers out to make two groups of about 3 legs each. Cut off the fly line at an angle about 1cm from the legs and tie 5 mm of that angled piece in on the top of the hook shank so that it projects out like a tail about 4-8mm from the hook bend. The bump of the fly line tied in on top of the hook shank starts to make the thick end of what will be the tapered case after weight is added. Weighting: Optional--no bead or lead wire at all in the lightweight version--use instead a long taper cut piece of fly line to form the underbody for the case. I prefer not to use a bead at all as it really looks out of place at the small end of the case. To compensate, I add quite a bit of weight under the case by lashing three short pieces of 0.015-to-0.020-inch (0.4-0.5mm) lead wire on top of the shank alongside the lashed in piece of fly line. These three pieces, along with the underlying hook shank to form a square cross section. The lead pieces are stopped well short of the hook eye and staggered as to where they are tied off at-- so that the micro-fritz body can be tapered down towards the hook eye. Note that the weight on top of the shank acts to invert the fly so that the hook point tends to drift up to reduce fouling. Case: The locally-sourced stick-like debris that Brachycentrus uses for its case are usually shades of tan, brown & on up to brownish black. Use a color of SemperFli micro-fritz to match the natural in your river or use a few fibers from a darker shade of pheasant tail. For the U. Arkansas River where I fish, I use the dark mocha brown fritz. After the weight is lashed in, cut and tie in a 3" (7.5 cm) piece of micro-fritz at the hook bend. Wind the micro-fritz over the caddis worn then side by side on down the taper to the hook eye. Spiral the ribbing wire forward over the case. Whip Finish. _____ 00:00 Origin of the Peeking Caddis 1:27 Cased caddis can be day drifters 2:02 Caddis worms actively move in and out of case 2:34 Caddis worms have prominent legs 4:07 Tying a Day Drifter 12:08 Optimal times to fish a cased caddis 14:20 Make a caddis worm with legs 17:50 Recipe 18:30 Acknowledgments