[mlwebb]

I have been looking for some patterns to tie for october caddis. I've tried a couple elk hair caddis, basically an orange body with deer/elk overwing, with or without palmered hackle, and some folks here use a stimulator, but wondering about what the trout are eating.
I was up on the McKenzie (at Greenwood), and saw a number of adult caddis flying around. Didn't have a net, and they were too quick for me to catch. Big suckers, wings folded on the rock about 1 1/2 inches long. Moth or Butterfly like when flying. I gather that what is happening is the larva, having sequestered themselves in their rocky little cases for a couple months, have emerged, swum for shore or rock (pupa?), climbed out, broke out of their translucent pupa cases, fluffed their wings and are now happily flying around. What are trout eating? The pupa swimming?, stillborn/crippled adults?, or windblown adults?

I didn't get any takers last night, but they might have been distracted by the Chinook salmon that were hurling themselves in the air. Kinda hard to concentrate on tying a fly on when a 24-30 inch salmon is getting 12" of air 30 feet in front of you. Guess they were happy to be back. Didn't see any steelhead, though they are there somewhere.

Anyone have a favorite October Caddis pattern?
thanks,
Michael

[tob1]

Have you tried a green eggsack back on the fly. It is a trigger for the fish

[peregrines]

mlwebb-

Fish can be on the larvae and pupae too during the October Caddis hatch, so it would be good to have some of those, and some drowned adults couldn't hurt . Dropping a pupa off a dry can also be a good thing. The females will skitter around on the surface dropping eggs, so, in addition to the EHC and Stimi's, you might want to add a skating steelhead pattern too, since they're around, you might want the stronger iron of a salmon hook.

"Nymphs" imitating the larvae after they've eaten their way out of cases:

Welcome to the Online Fly Tyer and this one:

October Caddis

Pupa I would want both weighted and unweighted versions:
See Han’s Weilenmann’s nymph above, and modification for pupa. You could also use a LaFontaine’s Deep Pupa weighted with a black bead head and Emergent Sparkle Pupa (Orange body, brown head size 4-6) You can google for patterns, but here’s an easy OC variation:

Virtual Flybox :: Patterns :: October Emergent Caddis Pupa

Tabou Caddis, tie with Orange body, brown head for OC in larger sizes 4-6
The Tabou Caddis Emerger - Simplistic Buggyness Using Two Materials - Global FlyFisher

Dry:
X Caddis 6-10 google
Stimulator 6-10 google
And for a steelhead version of an October Caddis Skater (crystal caddis) 4-6
Surface Flies for Steelhead by Dennis Dickson

Wet 4-8
LaFontaine’s Diving Caddis orange body brown head 4-8 (google)

Hope this helps, it's a great hatch to fish!

peregrines

[mlwebb]

thanks both of you, that should keep me busy for a couple nights until I get back to the river.
The egg sack is an interesting idea, and that's a very pretty fly. And peregrines thanks for the links and patterns, I'll try tying a few.
Michael

[seattleman1969]

Originally Posted by mlwebb

What are trout eating? The pupa swimming?, stillborn/crippled adults?, or windblown adults?
Anyone have a favorite October Caddis pattern?
thanks,
Michael

Michael,

There are many many good patterns for october caddis, just do a search online for them and visit some of the bigger online fly shops then search for october or giant caddis or Dicosmoecus. Places, like the fly shop THE FLY SHOP and October Caddis Hatches have some great patterns. Easy substitutes are the sofa pillow or stimulator in orange size 4-6.

The largest SRC I ever caught was on an october caddis wing-up skater tied on a size 4 long shank down-eye hook (I don't remember the exact model #/maker). Drifted it right over where I had seen the trout sipping for more than an hour as I worked my way down the pool. He ended up being 24" and a little more than 5 1/2 pounds. this was the last weekend of Septembet 2005 on the Main Fork of the Stillaguamish in Snohomish County Washington.

My absolute favorite go-to fall fly would be the tied back caddis which is an october caddis variant with a very thick wing tied back at the beginning of the hook bend. I don't know why but this profile seems to be preferred among trout of the freestone streams in western washington. There is an example of it on the flyfishusa.com page I mentioned previously.

As for pattern/timing if you are seeing adults use adult patterns, if you are seeing pupae emerging use any of the patterns and just see what works.

My favorite pupae pattern is a woven wool yarn pattern that does a great job of imitating the darker cross-hatched brown orange pattern I see a lot in Western Washington.

Good luck and enjoy, this should be the prime time for Oct. Caddis action!