As a new fly fisherperson I was "bragging" one day about my success with catching fish on a caddis fly. A friend, who was an accomplished fisherman, leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Be careful about your bragging, all of these folks know that if you present a fly and do all the proper mayfly presentations incorrectly you'll be doing a pretty good caddis imitation." That sure set me to thinking!

So to new fisherman and old timers alike I pass on that sage advice. Drag that caddis, sink it, skip it around at the lip of pools, bounce it up and down and in general do everything wrong. Because for caddis fishing that makes everything right.

That is not to say that fish won't take a well presented, drag free caddis. Indeed they will because the caddis silhouette is one of the most familiar in many streams. The general imitation itself, when tied in a palmered elk hair pattern, appears to be moving. However, that popular pattern is not my favorite even though it skitters and skips very well. My personal favorite is a tan or brownish green dubbed fly with no hackle, no palmer, Just a sparsely tied deerhair or woodchuck. The reason I prefer this pattern is mostly because it will sink very easily at the end of your normal drag free presentation, and when it sinks and you tail it across the end of your pool, it will catch as many, if not more fish than presented as a dry fly.

In front of logs or stream deflectors, rocks or any other likely looking trout lie, just swing this fly across in front of the holding area and hang on. It changes the dry fly into an emerging pattern with just a little jerk to make it sink. If you try this in the middle of the pool, jerking it under and then letting it pop to the surface like a cork, it will often bring up larger more difficult fish who have seen lots of drag free floats and are really looking for movement to convince them to take.

The pattern is so simple to tie, it seems almost unfair. You wind a tan thread on a size 14 or 16 hook, ( or any size hook ) and dub from the bend forward making the butt slightly larger than the front. At about 2/3 of the hook shank, stop dubbing and take a small amount of deer or elk hair which you have put in a stacker and evened up and brushed free of underfur. Place this on the front one third of the hook and hold tightly as you put on the thread to hold it in place. ( You do not want it to spin. or flare too much.)

Once it is secured with one loose wrap and then increasing tighter wraps you can just wrap right down to the hook eye, or stop just short of the eye to create a small head of deer hair. Use several half hitches to secure and a drop of head cement, and you are done.

This is my favorite caddis pattern because of its flexibility. It is excellent for quiet water. Many caddis patterns are designed to sit high, look like they are already flying or skittering, and they are excellent patterns for faster, or broken water. Some of these should be in everyone fly boxes too, but when the water is smooth, try moving this low profile pattern in more subtle ways and get ready for some great trout fishing.