During the later part of the season we noticed large numbers of Green Caddis and that trout had been avidly feeding upon, here in New Zealand 2 main species are Hydropsyche and Hydrobiosis and indeed these caddis larvae are arguably the most universal trout food the world over.
Having tied imitations for years recently i set about designing some improved patterns and post guiding the month of May a great time to test these out with the results truly inspiring. The fun part of this process is observing the insect and noting it’s features both in the river situation, via film and close up images that give time to study and think out how to better approach the design, I wanted to develop 2 patterns that would that would function for both the caddis species.
Green Caddis, a most universal trout food
Many times a simple rough impressionistic fly representing these caddis can work but i was looking for a more detailed pattern to be more effective when blind fishing larger rivers that have small populations of trout (you could even say needle in the haystack)! In my opinion I believe this is the real test of a good pattern and was passionate about using modern synthetic materials keenly incorporating the key features of the insect, setting about this experimental process here are what is considered important.
- 1-realistic coloration -achieved by coloring the body with 2x differing felt pens then covered in thin UV resin.
- 2-segmented look -the product called Nymph Skin functioned perfectly for this paying close attention to even wraps forward.
- 3-black wing case – Black Thin Skin functioned well here , cut to thin 2mm strip and is both robust and has a semi shiny look.
- 4-some animation – the use of very fine black rubber legs worked a treat , trimmed to correct size they both look super realistic and have great movement in water.
How well the fly lasts after long periods of being fished is also a very important consideration so with this and their potential fish caching ability to be tested i isolate these patterns and put them to the test fishing them over several weeks, during this time small tweaks and variations are added. The real fun part here is not always do my creative ideas work that’s part of it but these superseded my expectations! Over this period myself, friends and a few clients landed a great number of fish on them all sizes both Rainbows and Browns, importantly we often fished 2 nymphs under an indicator the first being a standard #14 tungsten beaded Pheasant Tail nymph the second being these new caddis and on one river session 9 out of 10 fish took the caddis this was to be the case many times over, so very very happy with the results and can’t wait to use them next season especially sight fishing those larger Brown Trout.
I will be making caddis patterns available in limited quantity if you are interested please e-mail me martinyy@xtra.co.nz