Match the Hatch Challenge #4

[Graham 0]

The time has come for our 4th Realistic Fly Tying challenge, which is a “Green Caddis Pupa”. The outstanding reference photo was taken by Jason Neuswanger, the passionate, energetic and generous founder of troutnut.com

 

I believe populations of caddis flies inhabit a majority of trout streams across North America and I look forward to tying and learning different ways to best replicate this insect. OK guy’s lets see what we can produce, this will be a fun challenge.

 

 

[bentflyrod 0]

Yeah baby! Bring it on! Looks like a good on Graham!

 

BFR

[Sjo Crapels 0]

What's a challenge? Are we now challenged to tie a caddispattern? If so, count me in.

Sjo

[Pujic 0]

Hi Sjo,

 

Every month there is a "match the hatch" challenge here in the realistic forum. A picture of an insect will be posted and the challenge is to tie a realistic version of that bug. There are no limits in this challenge so you can let your imagination loose!

 

Take alook at the pinned topics in this forum for the previous three challenges and the great patterns that members have came up with for them. It's a lot of fun!

 

Nick

[Shaq 0]

Graham,

 

No Using Oliver's Pattern

[JarrodRuggles 0]

Im in on this one

 

[Graham 0]

 

Hey Shaq,

 

I want to go with a realistic approach, haven't had time to start trying to tye this one yet. I'm thinking of a lead underbody, foam with lots of little hairs pulled through with a needle for the abdomen, swiss straw for the wings, glass eyes and just use the hook eye for the mouth. Still havent decided what to use for the antenae that bend backwards over the eyes. I hope to tye later tonight.

 

Graham

[Graham 0]

Well I finally have time to tye, here's my first one. These sure are much, much quicker to tye than the previous challenge flies. I hope to tye a couple dozen of these, hopefully with improvements.

 

 

I picked up a new fly box, the size of a small briefcase, put the flies from the previous challenges in it. Hope to add lots of Caddis next. Hopefully both sides of the box are full by the end of the year.

 

[Graham 0]

I'm still struggling with this fly, tried doing a couple things different on this one, body is too messy. Both are size 16, a 14 would probably be easier.

 

[Pujic 0]

Nice work Graham.

 

What will be the opening bid on that box?

[B.C.TroutHunter 0]

Great flies Graham.

 

Here is how I plan to create the abdomen. Take clear vrib or nymph skin and tie it in. Then create an underbody of danvile's olive single strand floss (I say this more because it keeps the same color when wet, and it is closer in color to the abdomen of the caddisfly pictured) and wrap the v-rib or nymph skin over the floss to create the abdomen. If you look at the edge of the abdomen of the caddisfly pictured, you will see it is slightly clear, thus the v-rib will imatate this exalently and it will create a nice segmented look.

 

Hope this helps.

[Graham 0]

Hey B.C., I think you're right. I used foam over lead then painted it with tinted acrylic varnish, hoping for the desired effect. On patterns this small the foam loses it's segmented look. For the hairs I used a small paint roller with short fine soft hairs, colored them, snipped off some and did sort of a touch dubbing while the varnish was wet. I screwed up the second fly by trying to put a second coat of varnish on it.

I think I'll try clear flexibody over dubbing. I can't wait to see how yours turns out. For the antennae’s I used fibers from a quality paint brush, colored them black, tied them on and heat bent them. The fibers on this brush seem to be identical to micro-fibbets. The first fly had two fibers flexamented together, second fly has single fibers. We'll get this bug dialed in.

 

[Pujic 0]

That's what I was thinking as well BC. I plan on using some bright green ice dubbing to build up an underbody, then wrap some clear latex or nymph skin over top to give it that transluscent look. I might use a marker to darken up the top part of the abdomen. We'll see.

 

I should have it done sometime this weekend.

 

Nick

[JRG 0]

Hey guys,

 

I tied a lot of caddis recently and BC hit it right on the head. I used the same technique to get a two tone effect by using colored v-rib and a slightly different color for an underwrap. I am going to try to get in on this one as well if I can find the time away from work. Will try to post some pics/submissions for some of my flies as well.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Graham 0]

I tied up 8 Caddis last night, all of them a little bit different; the pic below is my favorite so far. For the abdomen I twisted grey Swiss Straw into a thin rope and wrapped that around the hook. Allowed for a very segmented look, but the light green thin piece of Swiss Straw I wrapped over the base, to hopefully create the translucent effect, flattened out the segmented look. Oh, well, tonight I tie some more. Even the ones that do not closely resemble the Challenge photo will be fun to fish with.

 

Graham