Friday last I went to Lost Creek to wet a hook. The caddis and mayflies where hatching like crazy. I threw hares ears, pheasant tails, prince, chamios, and zebra midge as well as PMD and elk hair caddis. Nothing. I watched this 18" brown on the bottom of this pool taking something and I watched other fish ignore me offerings. They were not hitting emergers they were staying down low. I didn’t try a sow or scud (maybe I should have). I suspect with a rampant caddis hatch they were feasting on the larva. What are some good caddis nymph patters, emerger patters for Utah. I use the pheasant tail, prince, and hares ear for the mayflies, I just need something for the caddis. Any help on this is much appreciated.
If it were me, I would throw a size 16-18 cream or green scud pattern at them. I would probably put a size 16 cream scud on top with the size 18 green scud as a dropper. Split shot about 12" from the first fly.
I say the scud pattern, but sow bug may work just as well. Just keep in the cream and hues of green for colors.
I don’t know how educated the Lost Creek fish are, but my general rule is: The more educated the fish, the more refined you presentation needs to be. Pattern size and color come in a close second to presentation.
Good luck! You can also check out http://www.umpqua.com/flygallery.htm and type in “caddis” in the search bar (middle bottom part of the page). You’ll find several pages of flies, the nymphs and emergers are toward the end.
One of the first flies that I have my fly tying class tie is a chamoie caddis. Very easy to tie. Just wrap a small piece of chamois cloth onto a scud hook about 3/4 of the way. Tie in a peacock hurl head and you are done. The size will depend on the natural that you are trying to repersent.
For a size 20 I will use cream thread and a black thread head.
When fishing the fly, try using a strip and pause retrieval.
Please tell me you have some kind of magnification to tie your size 20s. I can hardly see them to get them on my tippet let alone try to tie one. So far my smallest succesfully tied fly(that has caught a fish) has been an 18. You don’t teach tying a 20 right off the bat - do you ?
95% of a trouts staple food is the mayfly … In any stages. Try a beadhead on the fly. When the caddis were hatching I always used the cripple caddis pattern. It hammers the bigger fish! They see it and think “hmm same protein … less work.” They sip it of the top and there is no splash.
The recipe for the fly : http://www.hookedfishingtackle.net/dacaddis.htm
The tying instructions are not there but this will help with materials.
The walking caddis is just a few flys below.