Caddis Larva

[wrangler412]

Anytime I go out on new water I check under rocks for some aquatic life. I often times see the obvious mayfly nymphs crawling around, but never really find caddis larva/pupa. I know often times they are in a cased stage, but what exactly should I be looking for to find them in the streams? This is just to give me an idea of what color or size to imitate that day.

 

[MKern]

The cased ones can simple be a group of pebbles or sand clinging to the bottom of the rock.

Free-living will look like little worms with legs.

I almost always have an ilive caddis larva fly on; to represent free-living caddis.


Google images of caddis to see the thousands varieties.

 

[gfen]

wrangler412 wrote:
I know often times they are in a cased stage, but what exactly should I be looking for to find them in the streams? This is just to give me an idea of what color or size to imitate that day.

Try a seine net. Put it behind some rocks, kick some rocks, lift up and marvel at them.

 

[wrangler412]

I understand what they look like, and often times find cased larva, but never find the green or cream free living ones that everyone tries to imitate. Where should I look for these? Should I use a sieve?

 

[wrangler412]

ahhhhh very nice pictures. Thank you so much, I get just as excited about seeing the bottom of the food chain as I do the top. Weird? maybe so, but I just like seeing what is going on.

 

[wrangler412]

Gonna make a seine tonight, anyone have any suggestions?

 

[pcray1231]

Anytime I go out on new water I check under rocks for some aquatic life.

Good practice, but this is why you're not finding the free caddis. When uncased, they're in the drift, not under the rocks. But you should find the cased varieties on the bottom, though usually on top of rocks or clinging to vegetation rather than under rocks. They are, after all, filter feeders.

Cases come in a wide variety of stuff, from silt to woody material to pebbles. A few examples lifted from the interwebs:

 

[sipe]

In my ecology class, the students consistently find uncased caddis clinging to rock bottoms and when using seine nets and a "stomper"

 

[littlelehigh]

Usually I lift a larger rock from the stream bottom and look for a clump of pebbles on the down stream side. If you pull them apart (they are held together by a spider web type contraption which is the larva case) I mostly find a caddis green worm size 16 or 18 inside. I also tend to catch these larva on my hooks pretty often when nymphing.

My problem is I just can't find a "good" pattern to imitate these. I know there abundant in the stream I fish hence getting them caught on my hook. But never caught a fish on a fly representing them.

 

[gfen]

That little chenille job work for you at all?

Been close to making more and refining it a bit.

 

[wrangler412]

Hey guys here is a seine I made today. it is out of a small gift card holder and window screen. I also made a scroll type seine out of steel rods and the window screen. Let me know what you think

 

[littlelehigh]

gfen wrote:

That little chenille job work for you at all?

Been close to making more and refining it a bit.

forgot about her she's still tucked away in my box. My apologizes.

 

[gfen]

Don't be, I'm curious to know if it does any good to someone who works a fly like that.

 

[BrandonMH]

I made some up a few weeks ago, was just messing around on a sat morn, watching fishing shows. I tied a few up with I forget what type of dubbing now, but green with a bit of brown for a head, sz 18. In the truck right now, I can get a pic later if anyone wants it.

 

[BrandonMH]

Here is a pic I just took of them, I think I used antron for a bit of a buggier look. I think they are either 18-20. Been messing around with the new nikon micro lens I got, just need to use a tripod more and either get another flash and or a remote. certain angles the built in flash seems to get blocked by the lens.

 

[MKern]

Vinyl Tubing for free-living caddis.

If you don't have that....vinyl ribbing or d-ribbing material.

 

[BrandonMH]

Oh yea, I forgot about that. Makes really nice looking flies. I don't have any but seen them before.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

Nice pictures

The brown head is too long (out of proportion) iIMO. I also recommend some type of ribbing.

Finding them: they will be in the faster water, in the riffles. One way to find more is to face downstream and let your legs block the current, then pick up the rock so that the bottom is turned downstream to prevent the current from washing off the larvae. Bring it towards the surface in this way and quickly flip it up to break the surface. This might help.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Brandon,

Try rabbit fur dubbing, a couple of strands of wood duck tied underneath "beard" style for legs, and two or three turns of black ostrich herl for the head.

Olive and kelly green are my favorite colors but you can tie them just about any color and they will still work.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[BrandonMH]

That pic was zoomed in, I know I put too much brown on, was hard to finish the head, just kinda whipped those up on a whim. I went with the antron for less of floatation and a bit of a shine. I think that was the old school way to make them, like 15 yrs ago. When I started up again, with the beadheads and that, I had to relearn everything.