Desperate Caddis 03/30/2020 Photo Album

As outlined in my 03/29/2020 post regarding the better woolly bugger, I initiated a project to tie new flies that intrigued me, when they appeared in the many magazines that I subscribe to. The next item in my scanned fly pattern queue was the desperate caddis. The designer of this fly promised that it was a very quick but effective tie, and after producing five at my tying bench, I am inclined to agree. The fly only requires four materials including the thread and hook. The designer’s main revelation is to eliminate a dubbed body on a fly that has dense hackle wound around it, because the body is barely visible to the trout. In the desperate caddis design the thread suffices as a body.

Size 16

I sat down at my vice and created five desperate caddis. I chose gray thread, which yielded a gray body, because I find gray to be universally effective in caddis adult dry fly situations. The Adams is a great example of a generally imitative dry fly, and it possesses a gray body. The desperate caddis is a very simple dry fly that should fool numerous greedy trout in the coming year.

Bring Them Closer

Spin Doctor 03/27/202 Photo Album

I subscribe to at least six fly fishing magazines, and before I dispose of an issue, I flip through it and scan any fly patterns that stir my interest. With my fly boxes replenished with all my favorite patterns, I decided to review my scanned patterns for new additions to my ample supply of flies. Of course tying new flies is only a first step. I tend to revert to favorites, and it takes extra commitment to provide a fair test for a new pattern.

If you follow this blog, you know that I am a big fan of Andrew Grillos, the king of foam. One of the fly patterns that I scanned with the intention of trying is called the spin doctor. This fly is essentially a conventional spinner; however, Andrew incorporated two sections of 1MM foam to provide improved buoyancy and visibility. Because I normally fish during the late morning and afternoon, I rarely encounter strong spinner falls. Mating mayflies and spinner fall events tend to occur in the early morning and evening hours in the west, since these times generally coincide with the calmest hours of the day.

A Different View

One notable interaction with pale morning dun spinners took place on the Conejos River during a July 2016 trip. For the full story check out my post of 07/20/2016, and scroll toward the end. On this day I was camping near the river, so after dinner and clean up I wandered to a nice nearby hole and began to fish. As luck would have it, a pale morning dun spinner fall commenced, but when I frantically searched my fly boxes, I was disappointed to learn, that I did not have spinner imitations of the appropriate body color. I subsequently remedied this oversight and stocked a variety of spinner flies, but at the time I shifted into improvise mode. I plucked one of my size 16 cinnamon comparaduns from my box, and I mashed down the deer hair wings, so they parted in the middle and spread out at ninety degree angles from the hook shank. If you read my post, you learned that the ploy paid dividends, and I enjoyed some fine action over the remainder of the evening.

Zoomed on the Bunch

Despite this improvisational success story, I realized that I had not tied spinner flies in quite a while, so I decided to create some spin doctor patterns in pale morning dun body colors. I crafted two with light amber, two with a light olive body, and two with the aforementioned cinnamon. I am anxious to give the spin doctors a test during the upcoming season.

Damsel Adult 03/21/2020 Photo Album

With the corona virus necessitating self quarantines in Colorado, and a snowstorm placing a freeze on outdoor activities, I decided to return to my vice. During the winter I cycled through all my mainstay flies, and I was now positioned to undertake some experimental patterns. But before I forged into the new and untested, I remembered a day on a Frost Creek pond, when I was frustrated with my inability to hook trout in spite of the presence of abundant quantities of large rising fish. Rising is really an understatement, as most of the trout were aggressively slashing at surface food. My post of 07/12/2019 describes the discouraging day on a Frost Creek pond.

The obvious food that the Frost Creek trout craved was adult damsel flies. Hundreds of delicate blue aquatic insects fluttered about and perched on the reeds along the shoreline. At the time I vowed to remedy this lack of matching imitations, and with the completion of my standard tying for the upcoming season, I prepared to tie damsel adults. I started with an on line search of damsel adult patterns, and I began with one of my favorite tiers, Charlie Craven. I was pleased to discover that Charlie had a parachute damsel adult on his web site, and I promptly decided to make this pattern my first prototype.

Angled

Unfortunately the recipe called for a braided damsel body material, blue 2mm foam, and blue dubbing. I possess drawers full of tying materials, but the color blue is totally absent. I made the drive to Charlie’s shop in Arvada, and Charlie himself help me find and purchase the necessary materials. He was out of blue damsel body braid, so I bought white and a blue marker and colored my own. This actually worked out quite nicely, when I finally sat down to make my first batch of adult damsels.

A Batch of Five

The Craven parachute adult damsel is actually quite easy to tie, and I quickly produced five for my fly box for the 2020 season. In Charlie’s introduction to the tying steps, he mentioned the teneral stage of the adults. This refers to the stage of the adult when it first emerges from the nymph while clinging to vegetation along the shoreline. The adults are pale yellow to olive at this time and very vulnerable to getting swept into the water by gusts of wind, and this circumstance is not overlooked by the nearby ravenous trout. In preparation for encountering this event, I tied two additional adults with a light olive braid, foam and dubbing.

Olive Color

Hopefully the corona virus will pass before the summer fishing season, and I will be prepared to cast my damsel adults on Colorado lakes and ponds.

Yellow Sally 02/26/2020 Photo Album

For many years I viewed the yellow sally as a summer hatch that did not occur with enough density to attract trout to the surface in great quantities on major rivers. Sure it was a good searching pattern on small high country creeks, but for hatch matching I carried some just in case but did not use them frequently. That line of thought shifted dramatically after several blizzard hatches on the Eagle River in recent years during the post run off season. If the reader is interested in a vivid description of one of these outings, check out my 07/03/2017 post on the Eagle River. I described a blizzard hatch of yellow sallies, although you will note that I fished an iron sally and hares ear nymph through the hatch and did quite well. Nevertheless, I do not anticipate encountering another similar hatch without access to some yellow sally dry flies. Fish on larger rivers such as the Eagle, Arkansas and Colorado do tune into the plentiful supply of small yellow stoneflies.

Is It Real?

With the improved ranking of the yellow sally dry fly in my fly choice hierarchy, I took a quick inventory and concluded that I could use four additional size 14’s. My size 16’s were adequate, so I positioned myself at the tying station and cranked out some additional imitations. I have experimented with other patterns, but I concluded that the basic deer hair version works as well as any. Only three basic materials are required; yellow dubbing, yellow deer hair and ginger hackle. I feel prepared for the next yellow sally hatch that greets me on western waters.

Size 14 Yellow Sallies