Caddis Dries

[WxGuy]

How many varieties of a caddis dry to you keep in your fly box?

When fishing this past Saturday I fished a few reaches of water where the trout, while steadily rising, were more selective to the fly than on other stretches of water. The caddis that were hatching were the gray caddis, and their bodies were around a size 17 maybe even close to an 18 but their wings were closer to size 16. During the peak of the afternoon I could swear I saw a couple larger caddis closer to a size 14, but it could have been the cold brew I'd just enjoyed.

I have a couple friends who insist they only fish the "x-caddis" dry pattern, but I'd wonder at how well that'd actually work from day to day and stream to stream. Sometimes I wonder if I just need a caddis pattern that, as long as I can skitter it across the water and it has the profile of a caddis, would work in most situations.

I'm probably over thinking this WAY too much, but what the heck...it's caddis season.

[beavflick]

I bet i have over 10 different stlyes of Caddis in my box. I use every pattern of them also.

[turiprap]

Great question! Fishing to trout taking caddis can be an odd epxerience in that at times any old "bottle brush" flung out there and skated will work, while at other times the trout are almost impossibly selective.

For the larger adults (sizes 14 and 16), I like the Troth-style elk hair caddis in about three colors (more or less light, medium and dark). For size 18s, I like either the King's River caddis or a hair wing pattern with a collar hackle rather than the Troth palmer hackle.

I think the X Caddis is a good pharate adult pattern and I've really begun to hold the Matthews' Iris Caddis in high regard, too. It's hard for me to tie the Iris Caddis, with it's odd Zelon loop wing, in a way that duplicates the original one sees in the Blue Ribbon Flies catalog, but the ones I tie still work.

[so haaad]

Don't forget the slow water cadis. You can vary this pattern for faster water by adding a dry hackle in front.

[Questor]

My favorite that is a caddis imitation per se is the elk hair caddis. Very effective and easy to tie. I also use other flies that imitate a variety of insects, and of those the Adams is my favorite.

[mark p]

I have 3 diff styles(4 if you count one style tied with 2 diff materials). Traditional Elk hair caddis, EZ Caddis, and slow water caddis. Of course I have all of them in 2 or 3 sizes and 4 colors. In my experience it seems like any of the styles will work as long as they are basically the right size and color. I guess I'm not sure why I have multiple styles then.