History writings on caddisflies

[ForumGhillie]

Calling all fly fishing history buffs, I am curious about the old fly fishing books discussing caddisflies and their wet fly imitations.

In "Favorite Flies And Their Histories", Mary Orvis Marbury has a small section discussing Trichoptera (cadis). She mentions Izaak Walton using the large cadis-worm (and as big as the compass of a two-pence) as a choice bait. The only caddis fly pattern I seem to find in her book is the White Miller, which was a winged pattern.

Anyone have earlier writings about caddisflies and their fly patterns by other fly fishermen?

Thanks,

John

[Roadkill]

You might be interested in an alternative tie of the The Black Leaper put forth in The Origins of Angling by
John McDonald. It treats a possibility of a wingless palmered wet fly for the blacke louper cadis from The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle.

The Black Leaper possibly identified as a caddis...
body- Black wool ribbed with peacock herl
wings and/or hackle- b) Hackle: Palmer-tied dun

[letumgo]

Oh boy! This has the makings of being a fantastic thread...

[ForumGhillie]

Ray, I have a ton of hours in this TU chapter project. I am going squirrelly.

Life-Cycle-of-Caddisflies-Mary-Orvis-Marbury.jpg (167.19 KiB) Viewed 1818 times

John

[upstatetrout]

Think about it John any old book discussing wet flies are just as likely to be talking about caddis! How about the Green Sleeves or the Green tail. Both have a recorded pattern wardrobe from the 1700's. North Country Flies used for the early season Grannom hatches. By word of mouth probably much older. Check Robert Smith's book for more ideas.

Tom

[PhilA]

John,
Rusty, whom we both know, wrote a column recently about how caddisflies were not given their deserved attention until recent decades. The piece includes some history of caddis imitations. Have a look at:
https://www.swtu.org/2019/02/08/lafonta ... rkle-pupa/

Phil

[ForumGhillie]

John,
Rusty, whom we both know, wrote a column recently about how caddisflies were not given their deserved attention until recent decades. The piece includes some history of caddis imitations. Have a look at:
https://www.swtu.org/2019/02/08/lafonta ... rkle-pupa/

Phil

Phil, perfect.. thank you!!

What I am starting to assume that a lot of today's Czech nymphs are taken by the trout as caddis larva. Also, the old spiders and soft hackles do give the illusion of a caddis pupa emerging.

When I ask fly fishermen if they ever fish caddis larva patterns most say "No". Yet, if I ask them do they have in their fly boxes nymph patterns and fish them (such as PT nymphs) most say "Yes". Most trout streams, especially the freestone streams have more caddis than mayflies crawling around on the bottom. And as Rusty's article points out (and is part of my TU chapter presentation) caddisflies really do not get the attention they deserve - now or centuries before.

[Bazzer69]

John,
Rusty, whom we both know, wrote a column recently about how caddisflies were not given their deserved attention until recent decades. The piece includes some history of caddis imitations. Have a look at:
https://www.swtu.org/2019/02/08/lafonta ... rkle-pupa/

Phil

Phil, perfect.. thank you!!

What I am starting to assume that a lot of today's Czech nymphs are taken by the trout as caddis larva. Also, the old spiders and soft hackles do give the illusion of a caddis pupa emerging.

When I ask fly fishermen if they ever fish caddis larva patterns most say "No". Yet, if I ask them do they have in their fly boxes nymph patterns and fish them (such as PT nymphs) most say "Yes". Most trout streams, especially the freestone streams have more caddis than mayflies crawling around on the bottom. And as Rusty's article points out (and is part of my TU chapter presentation) caddisflies really do not get the attention they deserve - now or centuries before.

I’m all my years of guiding I’ve stomach pumped very many trout on the Lower Sacramento River, I’ve can’t remember ever seeing a Caddis lava in any of them, certainly not a cased Caddis which are prolific here. Similarly not a mayfly lava. I’ve seen plenty of emerging mayflies and Caddis pupa. But the most amazing observation I’ve made is that more than 50% of the fish don’t have a single food item in their stomachs. Don’t figure and this is over twenty plus years. I must add this is the Sacramento River so others may we’ll be very different.

[ForumGhillie]

I don't use a stomach pump. but we used to have a ritual on opening weekend in May in the 1980s of keeping two trout for dinner the first night. I always looked at their stomach contents and found green caddis larva, olive caddis larva and stick case caddis larva and their cases. I know for fact on our northern WI freestone streams the trout eat caddis larva, especially in the Spring. Several aquatic biologists I recently spoke with from Michigan and Wisconsin all said the same thing.

No idea about the Lower Sacramento River.