1. Troutnut Forum
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2. Specimen Discussion
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3. caddis larva beh;a;vior question (really!)

tying for the grannom hatch on the Little Juniata. have a couple of standards, but just can't resist fiddling a bit:

do the grannom larvae in their cases hold onto the rocks with little sticky filaments which might be duplicated with a few fibers of CDC, or do they hold on with their legs sticking out which can be duplicated with hackle, or do they not hold on at all?

I´m interested in how you will attempt to imitate this kind of body.

Glass beads would do a good job, but are very heavy, if the size is too big. (i have some very small ones, for a size 14-16 nymph hook)

I´d like to see a photo of your fly, when you are done.

it's not fancy or intricate--peacock Ice Dub for a body, bright green thread, and a black tungsten bead. i've caught fish on size 12 nymph hooks and size 16 wet hooks.

i'll post a photo over on the photo place after the holidays.

i've tied them in Krienik braid as well, but haven't fished them; one of my gurus said the fuzzy, buggy one would do better. next spring i'll do one of my patented tests: tie one of each on a leader with two tags and see what works best. did that once with shad darts and indeed, that silly one with the plain red cone head out-caught the the others by a mile.

Brachycentrus larvae usually glue the leading edge of the case to the substrate of choice - rock, wood, another Brachycentrus case,etc. There are some great photos of this, and lots of other neat critters and stuff, on Joe Giersch's site: drunelladesigns.com. check it out! Joe is a great guy who knows an awful lot about alot of aquatic insects.

creno

gee, thanks, Creno! indeed, pictures are worth so much more than mere words...

After looking again at Jason's photos of the grannom caddis, I wonder, don't we tie these pupas too dark? I know the emergers are tied with dark bodies imitated with peacock herl, etc.
Bruce

Bruce,
I believe when they emerge from the case they are a darker color. However, a Tapered pheasant tail case w/ a light green sparkle yarn "larva" works great in the days leading up to this hatch.
jeff

well, silly me! all along i thought the peacock/furnace fly was imitating the cased larva come adrift in the process of pupating. hence my addition of bright green thread.

Hi CaseyP: I may be wrong about that, but when I was learning to fly fish about 25 years ago that's what I was told. I fished a similar wet fly we called "Bait" because during the caddis hatch it caught so many fish on the deadrift and the swing. It was actually brown hackle and peacock.
Merry Christmas,
Bruce

Bruce, you must be right: the adults are black with tan speckled wings. the pupa we see in Jason's photos was still inside the case. it stands to reason that the pupa would be darker when it was ready to hatch into an adult. (but what has reason to do with any of this?)

if we just let the trout tell us what color things ought to be, we'd save a lot of speculation, and it seems to me you've done that. thanks for sharing! back to the tying table...;-)

a peacock wet with a green tag works very well. The females are divers and the egg sac is about the color of the larva.