Grannom Caddis

[AFB2989]

One of my favorite hatches of the year is the Grannom Caddis. Each year I usually make the trip to central pa to fish over this hatch in hopes of having good dry fly action but always end up having better luck with sub-surface patterns. Does anyone have any favorite patterns for this specific caddis , or tactics that they use fishing this hatch?

 

[Tigereye]

Always had luck with a #16 Grouse & Green Soft hackle. You can use partridge/green also if the partridge is of the brown color. The whitish partidge feather works but not quite as effective.

You can also fish this "gang style" ie 2 or 3 flys. Usually 2 for me as its a little easier to handle.

Fish the riffle and runs

TIP: When tying your fly, keep the body very thin use floss or similar rather than dubbing. Create a small thorax of dubbing and wrap the hackle infront. The ball of dubbing functions to "splay" the hackle and preventing the hackle from collapsing along the body. Tied in this manner it creates excellent action.

An untried modification (I'm gonna try this year) is to use a bead for the thorax with hackle tied directly in front of the bead.

 

[troutpoop]

I prefer a traditional wet fly. I simple peacock herl fly with a few turns of grouse and a dun colored wing. Many of the ones purchased are kind of a chunky fly. As was suggested above, I like mine a bit thinner and tie mine as slender as possible, not over lapping the herl very much.

 

[afishinado]

troutpoop wrote:
I prefer a traditional wet fly. I simple peacock herl fly with a few turns of grouse and a dun colored wing. Many of the ones purchased are kind of a chunky fly. As was suggested above, I like mine a bit thinner and tie mine as slender as possible, not over lapping the herl very much.

^ Poop's fly sounds a lot like a leadwing coachman. I agree, it works well for grannom and is fairly easy to tie. I noticed when the wing gets all chewed up and disheveled, it works even better. So don't worry about tying perfect wings.

 

[troutpoop]

Yep

 

[1hook]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9-97XSSTyRRKldZ3TYJhsikFxsp5A5BD&v=YRxyOuM-ri4

I came across this the other day, tied by davie mcphail. Pretty much an x caddis but with a few twists.. Looks pretty nice, I plan on tying a few up.

 

[gutcutter]

1hook wrote:
Looks pretty nice, I plan on tying a few up.

Better hurry up

 

[ryguyfi]

I expect the grannoms to pop any day now all across the state if they haven't started already in a few spots.

I tie a simple peacock body, wire rib and partridge collar for the wet. for a dry it's a simple EHC with a brown/black dubbing, black palmered hackle and natural elk hair.

When fishing the dry do it with a down stream swinging approach. Cast at a 45 degree angle and take the tip of your rod and twitch it side to side as it's swinging through the current. This gives your fly the erratic motion that a natural caddis makes and causes some great strikes. You can miss a bunch doing this but it's an absolute blast.

 

[SteveG]

I just hit some great grannom activity tonight. Oddly, all the risers were in deeper slower water below a riffle. The dry I had on was a peacock herl body (half the shank length), deer hair wing (extending beyond the bend a bit), and brown and grizzly hackle for the legs/thorax. Same pattern that's in the pocket guide to PA hatches. I'm going to tie up a cdc version tonight.

Technique wise, I wasn't doing anything earth shattering. Occasionally I'd skitter one right before it'd start to drag at the end of its drift. Got some unexpected takes from fish I wasn't aware of.

What time of day were you fishing previously?

 

[LetortAngler]

On the streams that I fish , Grannoms will come off heavy mid-morning until the afternoon , then subside for a while and by evening I will start noticing more egg layers, and that's when I use a green butt pattern that seems to work pretty well, actually the same one you mentioned Steve.
The first few times I fished this hatch the dry fly fishing was very tough, trout rising everywhere only catching a few here and there, later realizing they were taking Pupas shooting through the surface.

 

[SteveG]

+1 on the pupas. I've been focusing on dries this year, but in nearly every instance that I get refusals on multiple dry patterns, I've rigged a simple soft hackle and connected.

Same thing tonight when I tried a "new to me" stretch. There were a few caddis laying eggs and some mayflies and midges around. I was targeting a splashy consistent riser with different dry pattrrns, and nothing. I tied on a soft hackle hares ear and the bow bent the hook. I'm finally realizing why people say wet flies are underrated.

 

[troutpoop]

I consider myself a dry fly guy for sure BUT I have bent my standard a bit to include the first few inches of water below the surface. I have found winged wet flies and spider patterns to be equally effective if not more effective. Many many times when dries wont produce it is the emerging insect just under the surface that is being eaten.
Grannoms are the perfect emergence for the winged wet fly.

 

[JackM]

I will admit the reason I am a dry fly snob is that I like to actually see the take. A fly just under the surface in water with sufficient visibility can give this thrill as well. I find the situation being described where there are duns on the surface, but the stream kittens just aren't rising, to be a perfect time to use a tandem, with a pupa slightly weighted tangling just a foot or so below the dry fly. Deer/elk hair caddis pattern with hackled bellies are nice strike indicators and bobbers as well.

 

[Sylvaneous]

I like the CDC wing with a trailing shuck. I tie others with the pulled-over antron body like a LaFontaine. With CDC, you can sink it. And when 'dry', the body sits in the water with the wing on top. It's a super simple fly and fast to tie. A snowshoe hare wing is good too, but wont collapse and swim under water like CDC. Better for flies on the surface. I always do better on grannoms in and under the surface. I like to tight-line a 2 wetfly rig with a bead head and a non-bead. If you get to see a grannom swimming up to the surface, it will be enlightening. They are pretty dark and simply shaped with only a few long legs for swimming. The air bubble may or may not be visible to you. But it's a simple shape. Don't fool yourself and get too fancy, or heavily dress the hackle.

 

[Chaz]

Henryville Special is a old pattern designed for the a dry pattern to match the Grannom. I use a # 14.

 

[RLeep2]

I agree w/Chaz re: the Henryville, although I think a #16 is a little better match for the grannom than the #14. The grannom is one of those bugs that you often see in profusion if you see them at all. If you are fishing over trout that see quite a few guys as is often the case with the grannom, the fish tend to get "patterned" on a specific sized insect and they sometimes get more picky than usual. In situations like this, dropping down a single size can often make a significant difference in your success.

And this is coming from a guy who isn't all that big of a believer in precise hatch matching....

But the thing about the Henryville is you can pop it so it goes underneath the surface momentarily and have it briefly act as a wet fly and then false cast it a couple times to dry it off and fish it on top again. This can be very effective and, at least for me, doesn't work near as well when I try it with hairwing caddis dries.

The other thing I would say about the Henryville is that I tend to see most fly patterns as general templates to be adjusted and tweaked PRN. To that end, during the grannom I'll often tie a Henryville-style fly with the quill wings, etc., but replace the green body with a very dark brown body palmered with a medium to dark dun (instead of grizzly) hackle. I really don't know if it makes any difference to the fish, but it makes me happier and seems to work OK.

 

[dano]

Another fan of the Hennryville style, though I simplify the over-wing using CDC and dub the body with chopped up darkish olive antron.
16 & 18's. I've done well with this pattern even to the tan and cream hatches.
Mercer's Missing Link Caddis is another pattern that produced when met with finicky risers on Penns and Oil.

 

[Chaz]

You could tie the Hville with peacock also.

 

[dano]

Chaz,
I used to but the dubbed body version is more durable and equally effective.

 

[AkDan76]

There's so much hackle on the HVS that you basically end up smashing down any benefits of the peacock. Lord knows I hoard peacock when I find it and use a lot of it...in this fly dubbing seems to be the better option the way I tie them.

In Gary Lafontaine's video there's another version of the HVS that's better for what I do anyways, cant remember the name off hand. I've gotten away from too much caddis dries over the years, I should crank a few out. Typically a troth caddis works fine for my needs. Its also easier. Use a grouse/partridge feather for the over wing instead of a slip of goose/mallard feather...thing looks deadly and the fish love it as well, though I doubt the difference matters. There's enough hackle on it she floats like a cork! Tie it with a spent head and trim the bottom flat so it sits flush. Good enough it should be outlawed. The head has an under body of peacock though again I think its a waste with all the hackle over it.

I'll have to stay up and rewatch the video....its a good video if you can find it!

I hit a pool that had what I think were grannoms coming off in MD and they wouldn't touch a dry (troth). They would however pounce on the emergers, which is what I think they were keyed in on to begin with.

Saw cdc mentioned, I cant keep cdc floating after a fish to make it worth while using. Looks great but has been a thorn in my side! Thankfully grayling are pretty dumb over all !