Caddis Emergers?

[jonbo]

So, I fished last week at BB. About 10:30 AM I found myself at the Evening Hole. There were some caddis coming off, and a few risers to those. The caddis were brown, kind of small. I tried an Elk Hair Caddis, for no action. Now, I'm not much of a dry-fly guy, so I may have been doing something wrong. I don't know. I just couldn't get takers. So I switched to caddis emergers. I tried a couple of Gary LaFontaine Emergers I had tied. Some I had put a little black in. I think I had colored the underbody with gold ribbing of some kind, not the green that some caddis patterns have. Nothing. I switched to some other caddis pupa pattern I think I had bought. That didn't work either. Yet, the fish were actively moving about appearing to feed on something. Again, there were a few fish taking the adults who were trying to take off, but not many. I was quite surprised I couldn't interest the fish in my emergers. They wouldn't take midge patterns, either. I finally switched to the usual nymph patterns and did fine.

My question is this. Does anyone know what our usual species of caddis is, and what pattern imitates it well. I once saw something wiggle to the surface, a large larva. I was excited to see it and about to try to intercept it when a trout beat me to it. I was like, "Hey! That's my larva"! Anyway, it was cream or yellow. I figured it was a caddis, so when I've tied up emergers, that's the color I've used for the body. But these I tied recently didn't work. I know that sometimes when people are trying to imitate caddis they use yellow, or gold, and more often green. Or, at least I think they do. What are ours, is my question? Is yellow the best color for the body? Is green? Does anyone know for sure?

[lipripper1983]

Man there's no telling what they're feeding on. I think it's important to distinguish when the fish are feeding off the surface and just below it, cus if they're feeding just below the surface they're eating an emerging insect. Good way to tell this is if you can see their dorsal fin break the surface of the water. If they're eating bugs off the surface itself you'll see them poke their nose out of the water and sip something. Atleast that's how I understand it.

The only caddis patterns i've ever had success with was a bright green nymph and an elk hair caddis. There was one day back in october last year that I caught something like 20 fish on one caddis pattern. But that's the only time I've had tremendous success with it. It's crazy, because that biological study they did on the LMFR a year or two ago found that after pumping the stomachs of fish that 50% of their diet was made up of caddis. Didn't say specifically what species.

The only thing I can think of is trying smaller sizes in various colors. I'm not usually one to fish two flies of the same type of bug (i.e two caddis patterns or two mayfly patterns) but I suppose it's worth doing if there's an obvious hatch going on and you're trying to get an idea of what they're eating. I'm planning on getting one of those little roll up net thingies and holding it in the water to catch bugs. Like in the upper water column of the current and not down on the bottom kicking up rocks like you see alot of other people doing yanno? I think it'd be worth doing if you just can't seem to figure out what they're eating.

[jonbo]

Yeah, about 4 years ago I was having success with a green caddis nymph, but not lately. Tuesday, though, I observed fish rising into the upper quarter of the column, snatching something, then going back down. I thought it had to be caddis emergers. There were adult caddis on the surface trying to take off with a few fish rising to grab them, but most of the action was below. I have several emerger flies, mostly meant to be LaFontaine's, if you know what those are. They've worked for me elsewhere, but not at the Evening Hole on Tuesday. I'm going to try tying up something called a "Davie's Cinnamon & Brown Caddis".

Davie's Cinnamon & Brown Caddis

[darrelln09]

You might take a look at one of Davy Wotton’s Three Caddis Patterns as well. Today I had the pleasure of watching him tie them in person at the Sowbug Roundup in Mountain Home. He’s definitely a master tyer!

www.davywottonflyfishing.com/category/articles/

[jonbo]

Thanks, D!

[lipripper1983]

You could try swinging soft hackles. That's usually what I do during an insect emergence. Unless I know for sure what they're eating I'll swing wets that don't imitate anything in particular but just look really buggy and I'll fish a team of wets that vary greatly in their features. Like during a caddis hatch I'd probably swing some green and drab tan colored wets. That's the only time I can get fish to eat when they're feeding the way you describe. Or just below the surface.

[jonbo]

I think I tried at some point a partridge and orange and a partridge and green. Still nothing. It was quite mysterious, I have to say. I'm still thinking they were going after caddis, but my patterns didn't quite match up.