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October Caddis
A dry fly, tied #8–10, a fall pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — September–October.
A large orange adult caddis dry for the last warm afternoons of the year, tied on a 2X long dry-fly hook in sizes 8–10 with orange 6/0 thread. The body is burnt-orange dubbing, palmered with brown hackle for float, the wing is dark elk hair set tent style over the back, and the head is the clipped elk butts. It is tied against the October Caddis, Pycnopsyche spp., which comes off in September and October in water between 45 and 58 degrees, and it is carried through the fall for that reason. Fishing it is a matter of autumn afternoons and evenings, with a twitch worked into the drift: the egg-laying females are anything but still, and a fly sitting motionless on the surface is misrepresenting what the trout are watching. Trout are the target species.
- #8–10Hook size
- dry flyType
- FallSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | 2X long dry-fly hook, sizes 8–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Orange 6/0 |
| Body | Burnt-orange dubbing |
| Hackle | Brown, palmered |
| Wing | Dark elk hair, tent style |
| Head | Clipped elk butts |
When to fish it
Autumn afternoons and evenings. Twitch it — the egg-laying females are anything but still.
A fall pattern. The insects it matches are active september–october, in water from 45°F to 58°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
- Abb Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Stimulator dry fly · #8–16 — Attractor and stonefly both. Floats a dropper better than almost anything.
- Adult Cranefly dry fly · #10–16 — Long trailing legs, sparse hackle, skittered rather than drifted. Autumn and spring evenings on the bank side.
- Adult Damsel dry fly · #10–14 — Blue or olive extended body on a foam post. For midsummer afternoons on slow weedy water.
- Brown Drake dry fly · #10–12 — Dusk in early June on Michigan and Wisconsin sand-bottom rivers.
- Brown Drake Spinner dry fly · #10–12 — Spent wings, dead drift, in the dark.