Читать книгу Fishing Flies - Smalley - Страница 48

Because these live on the river- or lake-bed it is important to add weight to the dressing (rules permitting). This can be done by:

 Lashing lead wire or foil strips to the top of the hook shank (this helps the finished fly fish ‘point up’ so that it avoids snagging).

 Winding lead wire around the shank. More weight can be added with this method – but the hook point is more likely to snag bottom.

 Fitting a tungsten bead (or goldhead or silverhead) to the hook behind the eye.

 Fitting a piece of split shot to the hook just behind the eye. To do this, fix a split shot (BB is about right) onto a loop of 3lb leader material, and then bind the loop to the top of the hook shank, with the shot tight against the shank behind the eye. Paint the shot black to suggest the head of the caddis larva protruding from its case. Note too that, with the shot fixed in this way, the fly will tend to fish upside-down.

Cased caddis larvae have a very soft, dirty white, cream or palest olive body. It is well worth imitating this in all cased caddis flies by winding a thin layer of cream, or palest olive floss or wool over the shank (and any ballast). This will show through any gaps in the case and may act as a trigger to the trout. Several patterns have been called Peeking or Peeping Caddis because they have a smidgen of cream or pale yellow wool between the case and the head, suggesting that the larva is partially out and having a good look round! This feature ought to be included in all cased caddis imitations.

FUR-BODIED CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or long shank, sizes 8–14.

Thread: Black.

Case: Coarse brown or sandy dubbing with plenty of guard hairs (e.g. hare’s ear or mask).

Rib: Fine silver wire.

Thorax: A tiny amount of cream dubbing or wool at front of case.

Legs: 2 turns of short-fibred black hen hackle.

Head: Black thread or black split shot.

Especially useful where the bottom is sand or silt. In Spain this is tied

with hare’s fur and a thick black rib.

FEATHER-BODIED CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or long shank, sizes 8–14.

Thread: Black.

Case: Take several large coarse hackles (e.g. mallard, grouse, grey partridge, upper wing coverts). Tie one in by its tip at the end of the hook shank and palmer it forward in touching turns; tie it off when almost run out. Then tie in and palmer a second, and so on until the length of the case is correct. After ribbing, trim back the feather fibres to give a case that resembles a mass of tiny bits of twig.

Rib: Fine gold wire.

Thorax: A tiny amount of cream dubbing or wool at front of case.

Legs: 2 turns of hen furnace hackle.

Head: Black thread or black split shot.

A caddis to use in well-wooded streams and lakes, or where there is plenty of detritus on the bottom.

HERL-BODIED CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or long shank, sizes 8–14.

Thread: Black.

Case: Wound herl (see here); if using goose quill or pheasant tail, about five or six fibres will be needed.

Rib: Fine gold wire.

Thorax: A tiny amount of cream dubbing or wool at front of case.

Legs: 2 turns of brown or black hen hackle.

Head: Black thread or black split shot.

NOTE: Use dyed green goose herl to imitate a case constructed from the leaves or stems of water weeds, brown or grey goose to simulate a case made from silt, cock pheasant tail to match a case made from sand. If fishing crystal clear limestone rivers (such as Slovenia’s Soca) a case made from white goose quill matches the white limestone sand cases of the local caddis.

PHRYGANEA CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or long shank, sizes 8–14.

Thread: Black.

Case: Bright green herls (e.g. goose, swan), tied in by their tips at end of hook shank, then brought forward and tied in at the front of the hook shank, so that the herls run parallel to the hook shank.

Rib: Black thread.

Thorax: A tiny amount of cream dubbing or wool at front of case.

Legs: 2 turns furnace or natural red (brown) hen.

Head: Black thread or black split shot.

Caddis in the Family Phryganidae live mostly in weedy lakes and make beautifully crafted cases from sections of green waterweed, formed in a spiral arrangement. This pattern imitates those cases.

The next caddis imitation is tied back-to-front, in that the head of the insect is at the end of the hook shank. By fixing the shot in place on top of the hook shank, the fly tends to fish upside-down, with hook point uppermost. This reduces the chance of the fly snagging on the bottom.

PEEPING CADDIS

Hook: Nymph, sizes 12–14.

Thread: Light brown.

Peeping head/thorax: Fluorescent green floss.

Legs: Brown speckled partridge.

Body: Hare’s ear and mask fur, mixed well.

Weight: A split shot (BB) fixed to fine mono which is then tied to the top of the hook shank, just behind the eye.

In the 1980s Roman Moser produced a video made on his native Austrian River Traun, New Ways of Fishing the Caddis, in which he introduced many new imitations of every stage of the caddis life cycle. Many materials used were synthetic and some (e.g. ‘Body Gills’) are now not too easy to obtain. Nevertheless, he has made a major contribution to the imitation of caddis.

CASED CADDIS (ROMAN MOSER)

Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–12.

Thread: Brown.

Abdomen: Light brown fine synthetic dubbing and brown deer hair mixed. After dubbing and winding down the shank, the hair/fur is clipped to give a caddis case shape.

Thorax: A little light yellow deer hair, dubbed, wound and trimmed.

Hackle: Sparse, black henny-cock.

DEER HAIR CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph, sizes 8–12.

Thread: Black or brown.

Body: Roughly chopped and dubbed brown deer hair, suggesting a case of bits of fine twig and detritus.

Rib: Yellow thread.

Thorax: A little yellow fur to suggest a ‘peeping’ caddis.

Hackle: Black hen.

This is a modification of Paul Young’s STRAWMAN CADDIS.

The following are New Zealand patterns and feature in Keith Draper’s Trout Flies in New Zealand. The first is a splendid fly for rivers and lakes throughout the world.

HORN CADDIS

Hook: Nymph, sizes 10–14.

Thread: Black.

Body: Grey darning wool.

Rib: Fine silver wire.

Thorax: White wool.

Legs: Few grizzle hackle fibres.

BRAGG’S CADDIS LARVA

Hook: Curved grub/sedge, sizes 12–14.

Thread: Yellow.

Body: Golden-yellow floss.

Rib: Fluorescent yellow floss.

Hackle: Ginger hen.

This matches the caddis larva Olinga feredayi.

Many attempts have been made to create cased caddis with the real materials that caddis use in the construction of their cases, such as bits of twig, sand and pebbles. The only problem is that the resultant flies can sometimes be a bit too heavy to cast unless a meaty rod and line are used.

SAND CASED CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or streamer, size 10.

Thread: Black.

Underbody: Cream wool or floss.

Body: Sand. Soak the underbody with Superglue and cover with dry sand. Leave to set before continuing.

Thorax: The front of the underbody showing.

Hackle: Black hen.

The TWIG CASED CADDIS is dressed in exactly the same way, using bits of dry twig and leaf.

INNES STICK CADDIS

Hook: Nymph, sizes 12–14.

Thread: Yellow.

Tail and body: Mix of synthetic furs (e.g. BMS, Antron, SLF) or seal’s fur: 20 per cent of each of yellow, olive and orange; and 40 per cent dark brown.

Head: Tying thread.

Devised by Rick Innes of Melbourne, and useful on both lakes and rivers.

BLACK & PEACOCK CADDIS

Hook: Nymph or long shank, sizes 8–14.

Thread: Black.

Case: Peacock herl.

Rib: Fine silver or gold wire.

Legs: 2 turns black hen hackle.

Head: Black thread.

This is really a long shanked version of the BLACK & PEACOCK SPIDER (see here), and exploits the magic appear that peacock herl has to trout. When tied with a short thorax of fluorescent green, yellow or orange floss or wool, this is known as the STICK FLY. This variation is especially effective for Arctic char in northern lakes (e.g. Arctic Canada, Greenland, Iceland).

CASELESS CASED CADDIS LARVA

Hook: Curved grub or shrimp hook, sizes 8–16.

Thread: Black.

Body: Cream wool or dubbed fur over the rear two-thirds, with blackbrown wool or fur over the front third.

NOTE: Poul Jorgensen, who invented this pattern, often gave the cream part of the body an overbody of natural latex, to suggest segmentation. ‘It’s not really needed’, he said. In any case, latex tends to rot after a while, especially in a warm, humid fly box.