The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

In this video, author Jay Nicholas ties another variation of a classic salmon and steelhead pattern using new materials such as Bling Rabbit Strips and Flash Blend Baitfish Brushes from Just Add H2O.

This fly could be tied in a variation of colors and sizes and used for steelhead, salmon, bass, panfish, you name it.

Join Jay and Chris Daughters as they discuss their years of experience dealing with materials and the many possibilities that these materials could be used for.

Hook: Daiichi 2220, TMC 5263 or similar
Thread:Danville 210D Black
Tail: Bling Rabbit Strip Black
Flash: Helix Flash
Body: Streamer Brush Bleeding Purple 2″
Eyes: Double Pupil Lead Eyes 2PL8
Head: Fl. Fire Orange Chenille Med.

In this video, Alex Worth and his dog Rosie stopped by the shop to tie a McKenzie green caddis pupa using Daichi’s new colored hooks.

Used in the spring when the water is higher and cooler, this fly is meant to drop quick and get you into the zone where fish hold.

Used under an indicator or on a Euro rig this fly will hunt!

McKenzie Green Caddis Pupa:
Hook: Daichi 1924 Matte Green Size 10
Bead: 5/32″ Slotted Tungsten Bead Black
Thread: Uni Thread 6/0 Black
Tail: Peacock Sword
Ribbing: Small Ultra Wire Black
Body: Mylar Tinsel Peacock Size 14
Air Bubble: Ice Dub UV Pearl
Wing: Select CDC Dark Grey
Partridge Skin Feather
Collar: Hare’s Mask Black
Ice Dub Peacock Black
Zap A Gap

Olive Spider Variant

Nicholas’ Olive Variant Sea Run Cutthroat Fly

Olive Spider Sea Run Cutthroat Recipe.

This fly is a size 6, but it fishes for summer steelhead down to a size 3 and up to a size 8
Thread – 8/0 or similar
Cement – Hard as Hull for the traditionalists; Solarez Bone Dry for the modernists
Hook – TMC 3671 #6-10
Tail – Yellow and Olive feather barbules
Butt – Lagartun or Hareline Fl yellow flat braid
Shoulder – Senyo’s Fusion Dub Crusty Nail + Lizard, dubbed as a noodle
Wing – sparse clump of olive Natures Spirit Moose
Rear hackle – Yellow Saltwater Rooster Feather
Fore hackle – Olive Saltwater Rooster Feather

Hello Oregon Fly Fishing Blog Readers. I woke the other morning, later than usual, and looked out the window to see clouds in the sky.

Boom! there it went, my memory jumping back more than a few years to an August day with clouds in the sky. The memories flowed like water to the sea, and in a heartbeat, I was slipping into my felt-studded boots, sitting on the tailgate, in a rush as always, anxious to get dressed for midsummer wading in a coastal river.

I was on the lower Alsea, but it could as easily have been the lower Siletz, Siuslaw, Coos, Coquille, Sixes, Trask …. I think you get my drift. Anywhere on the Oregon coast. In fact, it could have been the Rogue or the Umpqua too, but those are big bold rivers, and the places I fished for sea-run cutthroat are small low flow rivers, with short riffles and long slow-moving pools in the month of August.

The thing about stepping into a summer flow river, small or large, is that the possibilities of finding willing trout or summer steelhead are so much greater on a cloudy day.

Dark days are perfect for luring trout and steelhead from tidewater into the low flowing coastal rivers. RAin is even more likely to bring on a push of pacific salmon upstream, and the cooler waters are sure to stimulate a bitey temperament on the part of the fish too.

August days with clouds and a hint of water from the sky have been declared national holidays, you know. Yes. Holidays and vacation days and sick leave days and playing hookey days. This is such good luck because a day in August has the potential to produce magic for the angler who can be on the water.

If I’m fishing for sea-run cutthroat in late September or October, after a few spots of rain have cooled the rivers, after the flows are doubled or tripled from their August low flows, chances are good that I will tie on a Borden special, or a female coachman. or a royal coachman.

But if it is August and the water is at its lowest, I will usually reach for this fly or one like it in more subtle color hues.  This particular fly is a pattern I’ve been tying for SRC since the late 1980s. The fly is related to my Simplicity series of steelhead flies.

Tying notes for the Olive Spider:
The desired action of this fly is a wiggly and puffy motion of the feathers in the water. I think that this movement of the fl hackles is best achieved by plucking the longest feathers taken from a rooster cape.

When and where To Fish This Fly:
I fish this fly upriver anywhere above the head of tide, never near the river mouth closest to the ocean.

Olive is especially effective when cutthroat are feeding on various mayflies, as they are prone to do whenever they encounter a late summer hatch. The subtle olive hue of the fly is ideal for use as a followup fly. I’ll tie on a natural-looking pattern like this after I’ve been teased and refused by a trout or steelhead; in t=the years I have followed this practice, the fish will come back and eat this fly about half the time, so it is definitely worthwhile to carry a few in your box, and to swim it past a fish that is being pesky.

I will add that I have caught chinook jacks in august on this fly, but only if a rain cooled the river and rain jumped the flows a few hundred cfs to bring these little chinook out of tidewater pools. An 18 or 20″ dee[ bodied jack salmon is quite the thrill when you are expecting a sea-run of 12-14″. The jack salmon’s flash and pull at the end of your line on a 3 or 4 wt delivers quite the surprise.

Sea Runs or steelhead?
Although I first tied this pattern thinking about sea runs, a slender version of the fly is straight out of the playbook for summer steelhead, and never doubt that this fly will lure the larger sea-runners to your engagement.

Have fun out there,

Jay Nicholas,

In this video, Jim Sens ties his version of Charley Bird’s Bird’s Nest.

Using Awesome Possum, wood duck, and dubbing Jim shows you dubbing loop techniques that create durable, fishy flies that are guaranteed to catch trout.

Jim has personally tested this fly on rivers such as the McKenzie to great success. He swings them, drifts them, or hangs them as a dropper off of a dry fly.

Sens’ Bird’s Nest Fly Pattern:
Hook: TMC 2302 Size 10
Thread: Danville 70D Burgundy
Tail: Woodduck
Ribbing: Lagartun Small Gold Tinsel
Wing: Woodduck
Dubbing Loop: Wapsi Awesome Possum Dubbing Natural-Call Shop
Wapsi Spikey Squirrel Dubbing-Call Shop
UV Glue

In this video, Alex Worth stopped by the shop to tie a McKenzie River guide favorite, the Mega Prince.

Using jig hooks and tungsten beads, this fly is designed to get deep into the zone where fish feed. Use it under an indicator or with a Euro nymph setup in different sizes (4-12) to match the hatch.

Jigged Mega Prince
Hook: Daiichi 4640 Sizes 4-12
Bead: Slotted 3/16″ Tungsten Bead Gold
Thread: Uni Fl. Fire Orange 6/0
Antenna: Barred Crazy Legs
Tag: Mylar Tinsel Gold Med.
Tail: Wooly Bugger Marabou Brown
Krystal Flash Med. Brown
Barred Crazy Legs
Rib: Med. Ultra Wire Gold
Body: Peacock Herl
Wing: Indian Hen Feather
Thorax/Collar: Barred Crazy Legs
Peacock Herl
Goose Biots
Super Glue

In this video, Jay ties a Bonefish fly. A good pattern to try next time you’re down fishing the salt!

Hook: TMC 811s size 6
Eyes: Chicone’s Stealth Bead Chain Eyes
Thread: 6/0 Danville Grey
Tail: Aussie Possum natural
Mono Eyes: Aquaflies Eyes
Body: Rainbow Scud Dub
Legs: Chicone’s Crusher Legs Shrimp Pink
Wing: Sculpting Flash Fibre
Wing: Senyo’s Fusion Dub Crusty Nail

I know the flies we fish these days are superb. Tied on the best hooks, with fine threads, bodies that are light and float when we want them to, but every once in a while I think about the way I tied flies for Norm Thompson in Portland, in the mid-1960s. At the time, I was a teenager looking to find a way to pay for a nice fly rod and line. I talked with Peter Alport and agreed to provide these parachute flies for 35-cents each. At the time, that made this fly the most expensive dry fly they offered, at a retail price of 70-cants. I revitalized this discussion of the old-style flies for your entertainment here, and offer my invitation to read-on and enjoy a look back.

This is a fly tied in about 1980, very much like I tied the Parachute in the 1960s.

Adams Parachute

Hook – Mustad 94840 #10 – 14
Thread – Grey Nymo
Tail – White Calf tail
Body – Grey Mohlon yarn
Head – Olive-green dubbing
Post – White calf tail
Hackle – Grizzly & brown saddle feathers, dense

My favorite dry flies when I fished the Metolius River during the 1960s and 1970s were the Adams, Female Adams, Floatin’ Fool, and Red Coachman Special, all tied parachute style with heavy hackling and bodies that would be judged by 2020 standards of fly-proportion.

I also fished a Caddis Parachute, and a Green Drake Parachute too, but the heart of my Metolius fly boxes in those days were the basic Adams Parachute.

From my first parachute to this day, I prefer to tie these flies with calf tail hair, carried clear though to form the hackle post. I learned this style from Lloyd Byerly and Audrey Joy, in Portland Oregon, back in the 1960s and have found no reason to stray from the style.

I will readily acknowledge that materials like Poly yarn and Parachute Post materials perform better in terms of floatation, but I try to use the calf tail whenever I can find suitable hair on a tail. Modern synthetic dubbing materials provide better floatation, and color shades can be purchased to match the subtle shades of insects in different streams or months of the year.

The Female Adams was a favorite dry fly, although I never knew if the little yellow color bump at the rear of the fly helped – my confidence always soared.

Nicholas’ Female Adams Parachute, circa 1980s

A Good Variation from the Adams Parachute is the fly I refer to as the Female Adams. This fly can be tied as traditional with hackle wound around the hook shank, or as shown here as parachute style.

Hook – Mustad 94840 #12 – 14
Thread – Grey Nymo
Tail – Grizzly & brown hackle
Butt – Yellow dubbing, bright is best
Head – Olive-green dubbing
Body – Grey muskrat or superfine
Hackle – Grizzly and brown saddle feathers

After fishing Adams parachutes for several years, I discovered the Female Adams. In theory, the yellow butt triggers the take for trout keyed in on female Mayflies with an egg sac. This fly is sometimes referred to as an Egg Sac Adams. I have fished this pattern with the traditional tie as well as the parachute-style for decades and consider it a must-have on any trout waters. I have taken to tying this fly using fluorescent chartreuse Ice Dub for the egg-sac, and this fly produces well also. I can’t say whether the bright butt makes a difference, but I love the fly. You can depend on it on any trout waters.

I fished the Metolius in those days with an Eagle Claw fly rod; probably about 7 ½ ft. long, with an SA floating Double Taper fly line. I think I joined line and leader with a Figure-8 knot, but on occasion, I used those little metal eyelets that we jammed into the end of the fly line, and was held in place with two or three tiny barbs on the shaft. My reel was either a Perrine No 80 Automatic, or a Pflueger 1495, but frankly, I’m not sure, because some of these details have become a little fuzzy over time.

My leaders at the time were the Gladding Gladyl, dark green, 9 ft. 6X tapers.

My floatant was a red metal tub of Mucilin paste, and I would squash a soggy parachute fly in a wad of paper towel to dry it, apply more Mucilin, and my fly would float high again.

In closing, I’d like to thank any of our readers for making it this far. These old fly-styles are fun to tie, and they still catch fish.

Jay Nicholas, December 2020

In this video, Jim Sens ties a fly that has proven itself over and over again in the PNW; The Foxee Dog.

Incorporating dubbing loops, hackles, marble fox, pheasant and much more, Jim’s experience and creativity make this video fun to watch. Follow along and tie some up! Winter time is just around the corner…

Sen’s Foxee Dog Variation:
Shank: Senyo’s Articulated Shank by Fish Skull 40mm
Wire: Senyo’s Intruder Wire Pink
Hook: Aqua Flies Aqua Talon Size 2
Thread: Veevus 10/0 Light Pink
Lagartun Small French Oval Tinsel Silver
Veevus Mylar Tinsel Med.
Holo Fusion Flash Pink
Uni French Twisted Tinsel Med.
Lagartun Flat Braid Pearl
Ice Dubbing or Senyo’s’ Fusion Dubbing
Chinese Rooster Saddle Pink
Arctic Fox Tail White
Ice Wing UV Pearl Hue
Pheasant Rump
Pro Sportfisher Marble Fox Pink
Angel Hair Electric Pink
Red Peacock Herl
Silver Pheasant Feathers Natural
Solar Resin
Zap A Gap