Woodchuck Caddis

The woodchuck caddis....with groundhog day in the books and so much attention paid to this lovable rodent I chose to splash some attention his way also, be it a week plus from his day, better late than never. I'm not really sure who was the creator of this fly but it sure looks like a bit of Fran Betters influence in the fly.

The materials are woodchuck, dubbing, I used orange opossum, and brown and grizzly hackle.

As you can see it has a great caddis shape.

And it has super floating ability.

I tie them with a "hot spot" at the tail end of the fly. This one uses hot orange thread. I also use a yellow thread spot.

And yes they do work. I was able to bring a few to the surface on my last outing.

"Hemlock"

I'm a bit behind in my blog post of my small stream outings. Looking over my scribbled notes it may be at least three. Well this is some catch up. This is a stream I have wrote about several times, it's called "Hemlock"....a tributary to another stream that is as beautiful a place as one could ask for. The day I paid my visit which was in mid January was a sunny breezy day with temps in the low forties, for me that's almost ideal for this time of year. The stream was flowing nicely and it was so clear almost to the point you could see tiny bits of decayed leaves floating down.

"Hemlock" is a freestone stream that can show some pretty waterfalls and impressive plunges all of which hold some beautiful trout at other times of the year. On this day the fish were found in those smooth glides in the center and end of the pools.

One such pool. It was here where I took my first fish of the day.

This guy still held his fall colors. The feature I found impressive was his hooked snout. This fellow I'd like to meet again this October.

There are some places I should not venture in, this is one. An incline with some very big boulders covered with slippery moss. It's beautiful to look at but very sore on parts of the body.

Do you love hemlocks? I do and so do the brook trout.

This wild jewel agrees with the statement above.

To Thorax Or Not To Thorax

That little bump just behind the wings and legs the area called the thorax. Some flies use this to enhance the body of the fly to make for a more realistic appearance to the fly. Some of the materials used for the thorax are hares mask, and natural squirrel as well as many more natural and synthetic blends. For me it's pretty much one of the three pictured above.

Now I can't say whether or not it will make a whole lot of difference to the trout but to my eye I have a definite preference for a thorax. In some of the spider's tied below you can see some with and some without a thorax.

Hares mask thorax.

Dyed natural squirrel thorax.

Natural fox squirrel thorax.

Spider with no thorax.

These next two spiders, sulphurs both...the first is tied with out a thorax and the second one is with a thorax.

Now many of these spider pattern can be tied with a heavily dubbed thorax, or as I like them tied on the sparse side.

What A Diference 2640 Feet Can Make

Yikes...look at that ice. That's how I reacted to what I saw as I glanced at a stream I had planned to fish. It had been several days of moderating temperatures both day and night and my thought was the ice that had many of these streams locked in would now be free flowing. Well I did try to fish a few open spots, dropping a nymph in the pockets but after many attempts I concluded this was not going to work. I know this stream travels a bit further and I chose to check it out further downstream. Into my Honda and I drove a half mile downstream and found a place to park. As I approached the stream I could see what appeared to be an ice free run.

Upstream, a very cold valley, just locking in that cold air.

A half mile downstream, night and day. I still had the nymph on and started fishing this likely run. It did not take long before I felt a hit. Several more casts and a hookup. As I reached for the brookie he bid me "nice knowing you" and gave me back the nymph and off he went. I continued working and got several more responses most of these coming as I lifted the fly near the surface. I know I would have taken another fish or two until the third stone on the left took my fly. The lights went on and I said these fish are looking up. I tied on a dry fly and I had one beautiful outing on the "dry".

A "wild one"...these brookies were not slamming the dry fly like they would in May instead they were sort of slurping it in.

Every little seam where there was water flowing in pretty much held a fish.

I had a nice brookie take the fly on the opposite side of the fallen log...I'll remember what not to do next time we meet.

My last brookie of the day..just as beautiful as any...then again they are all beautiful.

Beat up, and all out of proportion but working just fine.