Dukes Creek 4/26/06

[midget]

I fished Dukes this afternoon in the rain and let me tell you that it was the best afternoon Ive ever had there. At the end of the day I managed to pull in 10 trout; all of which were 18+ inches. 5 of the fish managed to break the 20 in mark, which included a hefty brown. All trout were taken on a variety of caddis patterns. If it was green the trout wanted it. Two of the fish took me deep into my backing, which has never happened to me before. What a thrill!! I fished section 4 and caught them all out of one sweet hole. Dukes fished extremely well with a stain on the water. Can't wait to get back.

Joe

[btreeves]

That sounds alright, I guess. But you should have seen the day I had at the office today...it was amazing... I...I...uh looked at these message boards all day. But thanks for letting me live vicariously through you, Joe. Glad that the caddis was working.

[Richie27]

man you need to get a camera and start taking pictures of these awesome fish from dukes! I need to get up there and fish...its been way too long! When are you heading back???

[flyg]

Dang. Now that is a good day. When you say caddis patterns, do you mean dry flies?

G

[midget]

No, when I say caddis patterns I mean all the flies I used were a type of caddis but all were nymphs. Z-wing pattern worked really well along with a few other simple patterns.

I will have to say that I would catch a fish or two on one pattern and then have to change to another for the fish to take it again. As long as I switched patterns every hour or so then I kept getting hits.

And Richie, I do have some pics up; they're just on my facebook page. So take a look if you'd like.

Here are two links to some fishing related pics on my facebook page:

http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037771&l=61ae8&id=4902335

http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062107&l=5b4ec&id=4902335


Joe

[salmon_egg]

WOW Joe !!!!

:yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:



Are all those from Dukes?

[midget]

All the big fish are from Dukes. There are a few pics from Smith Creek and the Chattooga DH.

Joe

[btreeves]

What other caddis patterns were working? Did you try any of those pupae's? I feel like I've been catching more fish on that as of late

[midget]

Ben,

I did try some caddis pupa and had great luck with them. I also used an emerger pattern in the later afternoon when the bugs were popping off the water. Probably my best fly of the day was a bead head caddis. It just consisted of green dubbing, tappered up the curved hook. I used some krystal flack for a ribbing and then wrapped some black dubbing, loosely, for for a collar.

Do you use ultra chenille for your caddis pupa?

Joe

[btreeves]

yeah...tie in some gold or silver tinsel in the back along with copper wire. Bring the tinsel to the front, secure. Tie in the piece of ultra at the top then bring copper wiring over for ribbing. Burn the end to seal. Tie a couple of pieces of duck flank and wrap soft hackle for the collar. I usually tie it bh'ed.

[btreeves]

that bh caddis sounds like the other pattern that we had luck on the other day. All it is is a caddis hook with olive bead, caddis dubbing with a clear vinyl rib covering the dubbing, and peacock for a collar. Small, but it worked great the other day. It would have been our main fly if I had tied more than two of them; won;t make that mistake again.

[midget]

Ok ben that is a bit confusing. I tie in copper wire and then silver/gold tinsel. Wrap the tinsel up to the front. Now I tie in the chenille. You say on top but what do you mean by that? After I tie the chenille in on "top" i then wrap the copper wire forward as ribbing to secure the chennile. You then use some dunk flank for a soft hackle collar?

Have a pic or a recipe that you used on the web?

Joe

[flyg]

yeah...tie in some gold or silver tinsel in the back along with copper wire. Bring the tinsel to the front, secure. Tie in the piece of ultra at the top then bring copper wiring over for ribbing. Burn the end to seal. Tie a couple of pieces of duck flank and wrap soft hackle for the collar. I usually tie it bh'ed.

Yeah, BH caddis pupae worked well for me coupla weeks ago on some wild water. That's one of my favorit droppers during all the early summer caddis flury. Of course, science has proven that nymphs or streamers are not as morally pure as dry flies (but I am willing to stoop down to that level when I have to:)

(kidding of course)

G

[btreeves]

sorry.. I went through kind of fast. I don't have a recipe, I just bought one and took it apart. Start thread on hook, then tie in tinsel in the back and also copper wire. Wrap the tinsel up the hook towards the eye or bead, covering the hook, secure. Then tie in the chenille right behind the bead; leaving a little bit of room for the collar. Run the copper wire from the back up to the bead leaving room between each wrap. You end having about 5-6 wraps from the back to the top. Secure the wire. Then tie in about 4-5 strands of duck flank behind the bead, leaving them running the length of the body. Then I use one strand from an ostrich plume for the collar. Also, be sure to burn the end of the chenille bf tying in duck flank; that stuff will curl up quick under flame. It's called caddis poopah, according to many websites. Google caddis poopah and you'll find some pics.

[flyg]

Thanks. Cool, you know I've never used that "poopah" pattern. It is a nice imitation of:
http://www.troutnut.com/naturals/caddisflies/index6.php

I've always used variations of these:
http://www.fishsniffer.com/fly/fom/30303beadhead.html
http://www.flyfishusa.com/flies/cadlarva-3.htm

G

[btreeves]

those last two are very close to the other pupa pattern I talked about; just the dubbing with the vinyl rib and then peacock collar. I like the vinyl for a little bit more flash/reflection when the water has some stain on it. That poopah pattern has become a go-to fly lately. But like Joe said, if it was small and green, the fish were eating it.