Caddisflies, Fly Fishing Rigs & Techniques

24 June 2014 | Admin

Better Use of Caddis Flies For Fly Fishing

Caddis are a big meal for trout and at present an important part of the food chain and consequently a crucial fly for the fly fisherman to use.
Caddis flies in pupa and dry fly form should be in every fly fishermans box on outings to rivers and lakes today.

Don't just use caddis as a dry fly, there are different rigs that you can use that make this a deadly pattern in your fishing armoury.

Barbless Caddis / Sedge Flies From Our Range

See the fuil range of caddis flies here caddisflies

Other Caddis / Sedge Flies

There are many variations of the deadly sedge flies, my personal favorite the Stimulator, deadly and great for supporting rigs (see later in this email), Sedgehogs great for imitating sedges low in the water, Elk Hair Caddis and Goddards Caddis to name just a few. With dull coloured bodies in grey, browns, oranges and greens they are an required fly in any fly box from April to October!

Caddis / Sedge Pupa Flies

Alternative Caddis Fly Fishing Rigs - Don't Just Fish As Dries or Nymphs!

Caddis work well twitched 12" at a time then pause like the natural fly

Fish caddis as a dry fly, twitch and pause
Use suspending buzzers or GRHE or Pheasant Tail Nymphs below. When twiched it lifts the nymphs into the feeding zone and drops them again

Be a devil, try a caddis as a suspender on a rig and hit trout hard!

Caddisflies are deadly twitched on the river surface on rivers and stillwaters, however there are stunning rigs that MUST be considered by fly fishermen due to the high buoyancy and movement pattern of the sedge! Enjoy using this stunning technique below for rivers and lakes, we often call this the Banker Rig, a technique that you really can bank on to catch fish.

Fishing Techniques Using Caddisflies

From mid April to the end of October this fly is frequently one of the first flies I use on rivers and on lakes.

Using a large Stimulator on top dropper with one or two buzzers or nymphs suspended below is one of my most used rigs, just Tuesday of this week using this pattern it was absolutely hammered by a trout determined to take this big food offering. Whether it was the orange body, the profile or gentle twitching we don't know what provoked the trout however this rig works on rivers and lakes.

On rivers we use Stimulators, Balloon Caddis, Elk Hair Caddis and Goddard Caddis patterns on the top dropper with with 12 to 48 inch long leaders with one or two droppers depending on the depth of the water with pheasant tails, grhe or endrick buzzers suspended below, especially with small tungsten beads to get down quick as a team which we use to hunt and work the water, running through all of the riffles and over and round rocks this team proves deadly each time. This is a tremendous search team which trout will hit hard on nymphs and on the Sedge fly letting the river propel the team over and round all obstacles.

On Stillwaters we will use a Caddis again I inevitably start with the Stimulator on my top dropper with a leader anything from 12" to 6 feet with one or two droppers below supporting buzzers and spiders. With 8 or 10 feet (or more) from the end of the fly line to the first dropper to avoid spooking trout I will cast and allow the team to settle to working depth. I will then alternate twitching the team 6 inches towards me making the Caddis move like the natural while simultaneously lifting the buzzers so they look like they are emerging. Every 4th or 5th twitch I will move the like anything from 2 to 5 feet to lift the buzzers high in the water and start again. Trout will hammer the buzzers as they rise and fall and absolutely kill the caddis as it twitches looking like the natural.