Cahils's Anyone?

[Ivan]

I fished the DH at West Palesades couple of days last week I had a lot of succes with olive bhhe"s and bhpn's on the bottom. Around Seven o'clock I noticed a light Cahil hatch. I had some tied in waterwisp fashion #16 and caught a few fish. Are any of you using L C's on the DH. And has anyone seined the area. Are there any scuds? Someone asked last year wear the LC's where. There on the DH !

[bcarter]

Hey Ivan- I also caught some fish on the LC wisp that you tied, but the third or fourth fish I hooked up with took the fly home with him. I went back out to the W. Pallisade yesterday and did quite well with a #16 Blue Wing Olive. There wasn't an evening hatch last night though- there were bugs everywhere last week just as the sun went down but not a thing yesterday.

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[BigJosh]

So that's what all those bugs were! I really need to get up to speed on my entymology(isn't that the right word?). I was out at whitewater last week and these little bugs were coming off in swarms. It was incredible. I just stood there like a moron looking through my fly box for something small and light colored. Whats the recipe for tying these little fellas (LC Wisp)?

Josh

PS-Glad to see that your back Ivan. I've been looking for you at Piedmont.

[Drifter]

The Light Cahill a/k/a PMD, a/k/a Pale Morning Dun....This small, pale-yellow mayfly of the crawler group is often referred to by its initials, PMD. Despite the name, hatches can occur in the morning, early afternoon, or evening. It's not unusual to have both morning and evening emergences on the same day. This is often the dominant hatch where and when it occurs.

Trout take nymphs all day, and duns and emerging duns during the hatch. The best places are slow runs, backeddies, and under overhanging trees. Shortly before a hatch, dead-drift a nymph near the bottom. As the hatch begins, present a nymph near the surface or as a rising nymph. As trout begin taking duns off the surface, tie on an emerger, cripple, or dun pattern.

Because the hatch usually happens in slow, clear water you will need a thin tippet--7X on many spring creeks. You may also need to make a downstream presentation to a fish whose location you are certain of.




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The Drifter <'(((><
The Virtual Fish Camp (http://www.mindspring.com/~skeeble/virtualfishcamp.htm)

[Ivan]

Josh
Been having too much fun on the DH . Let me know when you plan to be at P Park. I got the wisp pattern from a magazine about two years ago. I'll see if I can find it and get a copy out to you.
Drifter; I thought PMD where a little more yellowish? bcarter glad you you hooked some fish on that wisp. I am going to tie up some more. I've tied twenty and fished three. I given away more flys than I've fished. It makes me feel good when guys report that my flys have caught fish for them.

[bbell]

The Cahills on the delayed harvest are cream or white. I have seen some with orange highlights. The legs and sometimes the wings have faint yellow-brown markings. They have to be one of the prettiest mayflies in the world. The spinners are white with clear wings...they may have some orange as well.
The Cahills are similar to but a different species than the pale morning dun of the west. As far as I know, PMDs don't hatch east of the big river. Cahills are Stenocron and PMDs are species of Ephemerella: infrequens and inermis.
PMDs closely resemble the sulphurs (also called pale evening duns) of the east which are also Ephemerella. OK, that's too much Latin. Anyway, all that stuff is pretty much useless information to the fisherman, but you asked...I don't ever talk like that on the stream because I don't want to sound like a pretentious jackass, plus it sounds funny when you're talking fancy with a wad of Copenhagen in place....

[Drifter]

bbell,

I luv it when you speak Latin http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif

PED would be the Ephemerella Dorothea if I remember right....and this is my favorite hatch to fish! Entomology is just one more facet of flyfishing that makes the sport great IMNSHO.



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The Drifter <'(((><
The Virtual Fish Camp (http://www.mindspring.com/~skeeble/virtualfishcamp.htm)

[STEEPLER]

I've been haveing a lot of fun here, too. I haven't tied on a sub surface fly since February, and I fish DH waters about 4 times a week!! Yesterday, I collected about 6 different species of insects all on the water at the same time. There were bwo's sz. 22, light cahills sz. 12-16, tiny black midges, tiny cream midges, a fog of tan bodied caddis sz. 20, and a less abundant green bodied caddis sz. 20.

The tan bodied caddis hatch was most abundant. It happened right at nightfall and probably continued after dark. They were flying about 6 inches above the water and the trout were jumping completely out of the water to catch them. To catch these insects I only had to hold my hand out in front of a wave of flying insects about six inches above the water, and wait for them to bump into my hand. It only took about 5 seconds to collect 2 or 3.

The cahills hatch from March to November in this area. I've noticed a large variability in size and color. I've seen some that are almost white and some that are almost yellow. From watching them emerge and egg lay I've noticed that they sit in a dead drift helplessly on the water. A great dry fly insect!

[Drifter]

Steepler,

Now your ready to take it to the next level http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif Get some of those small glass vials and collect the insect samples. Preserve them in a product called "Bug Balm".

Take 'em home and try to tie imitations of those little boogers.



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The Drifter <'(((><
The Virtual Fish Camp (http://www.mindspring.com/~skeeble/virtualfishcamp.htm)

[STEEPLER]

Drifter,

I'm officially an addict now. I was up till 4AM on Friday tying the flys that I collected. I've collected a lot of flys I have more dried up dead flys in my fly box than imitations. Maybe I should start using something to preserve them.

I found a yellow and orange mayfly yesterday on the DH of the Hooch. The body was 7/16 of an inch long with a yellow belly and an orange back. Does anyone have any idea what this was? Another type of Light Cahill maybe?

[This message has been edited by STEEPLER (edited 04-30-2001).]

[The Owl]

I had a dream last night and this thread brought it back to my memory. I was in the GSMNP and I was watching a four pound brookie with the prettiest markings. He was "standing on his tail"( really unnatural, I know, but it was a dream after all) and taking bugs out of the AIR ! " Just standign there on his tail opening and closing his mouth around some cream flies !
I was just about to sneak down and go after him when I noticed the lion tamer and the lion at the far end of the pool. There was a show about to begin and apparnetly this 4 pound brookie was part of some sort of circus act. http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif

Owl

[STEEPLER]

I found out what it was. It's a Stenonema Ithaca male dun... a species of male Light Cahills. I found a picture of a fly similar to the one that I found. The only difference is that the fly I found was much brighter. It looked almost fake. Here's the link if you want to check it out:
http://www.flyshop.com/bench/index-flies.cfm?ID=2674&flyname=Slim%20Jim

For some reason this link doesn't take you straight to the picture I'm referring to.
(1) Click on the link
(2) Go to Mayfly Hatch Guide
(3) Pull up Light Cahill

[This message has been edited by STEEPLER (edited 04-30-2001).]

[This message has been edited by STEEPLER (edited 04-30-2001).]

[Flashback]

I love the Light Cahill. It is the only mayfly that hatches along the DH from late spring until fall. Stenonema ithaca is the standard Light Cahill that you will read about in bug books, but there are several other similar species which can be found on this section of the river. One, Carolensis, has an orange tint to its' body and legs, this doesn't make a bit of difference to the trout but FFers may enjoy this buggy trivia.

As for Ephemerella Dorothea, that's the so called Sulphur mayfly. I have seen very few of them on the lower Hooch during the last twenty years of fishing there. The Sulphurs, as their name suggests, are more orange colored than the predominately cream colored Cahills. A close examination of the duns will reveal that the Cahill male dun has dark, almost black eyes, while the Sulphur has red eyes.

Can you tell that I love this stuff?

[STEEPLER]

Flashback,

I wish I had a digital camera. This is the most brightly colored fly that I've ever seen. It's probably the Carolensis species that you mentioned. After looking at the fly again it was more orange than yellow.

It was definately not a sulfur. A sulfur has three tails, and this fly only had two. Speaking of which, I found a sulfur about 2 weeks ago. It was about a size 16. I haven't seen any since then, though.

There's also plenty of blue winged olives that hatch throughout the year. There was a spinner fall yesterday near Cochran shoals. Trout were sipping everywhere. At first I thought they were taking caddis or light cahill emergers, but after looking at some foam build ups, I saw lots of little rusty colored spinners. For a little while the trout wouldn't take anything but a size 20 -22 spinner. Oh yeah, I caught all browns, probably because I was fishing in a slower moving pool where fallen insects gather up.

I love this stuff too!

[This message has been edited by STEEPLER (edited 05-01-2001).]

[Fire Walker]

Ivan I was fishing there last week and the cahill hatch came off around 730 I was fishing with Kayakerguy and GreenZ we had so much fun it was crazy! Mark was the one that matched the hatch and issued them accordingly http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif We fised until after dark right down to the last cast with Fish on! Great fun

[Flashback]

Okay, Steepler, I stand corrected. BWO hatches do indeed overlap the Cahills' but the BWOs seem to be more abundant in early spring and again in the fall. The Cahills predominate during the summer months.

In past years when the river was less stressed, there would be an early spring hatch of March Browns and Hendricksons. They were never every numerous but they sure could raise the trout.

[Tom]

Great thread! If you have access to "Matching The Hatch", published in 1955, by Ernest Schwiebert, you will find the "original" pattern for the Light Cahill, credited to Theodore Gordon as the originator. While Schwiebert's writings are a bit on the scientific side, they are interesting. And as with many of our flies, the Light Cahill is effective on a overlapping number of naturals. As Robert Traver says, tie on a light colored fly when you see a light colored natural in the appropriate size and offer the trout a realistic presentation. And as with most of the dries that I tie, I tie the parachute version of the pattern...I can see it and it floats low in the film. Tight Lines, Tom

[Ivan]

Thanks for all the feed back. I love this stuff too. In fact I'm planing to take that entomology course Chris Scalley talked about at the Fling.

See you on the DH !

Tight Lines

Ivan

[bbell]

Does anyone have Chris Scalley's email.....I would like to contact him.....

[Milton]

chris.scalley@mindspring.com