October Caddis Soft Hackle

October Caddis Soft Hackle

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Tying Instructions

1. Attach the bead to the hook.

2. Start the thread an eye length behind the bead and wrap down to the middle of the bend.

3. Snip a point on the Nymph Skin and attach the point to the top of the hook shank near the middle of the bend. Secure with thread wraps and bring the thread up to behind the bead.

4. Build an underbody of thead for a slight taper.

5. Wrap the nymph skin from the base at the middle of the bend forward to behind the bead. Start the wraps of nymph skin fairly tight and loosen the wraps as they get closer to the bead. This is give you a slight taper.

6. Secure the skin behind the bead. Snip off the tag end of the nymph skin and secure with additional thread wraps. Next, dub the thread with orange Ice Dubbing. Bring the dubbing up to a eyelength behind the bead and give one wrap to lock in the fibers, then twist the dubbing noodle to further tighten around the thread.

7. Apply enough dubbing to provide a small ball.

8. Tease out some of the fibers with a brush, sweeping the fibers back over the bend of the hook.

9. Once brushed, it should look like this.

10. Select a hen neck hackle that is sized to the hook. Remove the basal fibers and preen enough fibers that you wish to wrap. I’m going a little heavy with the hackles having about twice the hook length.

11. Next, fold the hackle barbs back onto themselves to create a plane of fibers. This will help in wrapping the hackle without trapping fibers.

12. Attach the hackle by the tip just behind the bead with a few thread wraps. Clip off the tip.

13. Wrap the hackle with each wrap being just in front of the former wrap. Wrap down to the bare quill and secure with thread wraps behind the bead.

14. Apply some UV Black Ice Dubbing to the thread. Not much. Secure the first fibers behind the bead and twist the dubbing around the thread for a tight noodle.

15. Wrap the ice dubbing behind the bead and secure with some thread wraps behind the bead to create a small band of thread.

16. Whip Finish.

17. Apply a drop of head cement to the thread band.

18. The finished October Caddis Pupa wet fly.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	Firehole 316 #8-10
Thread	Uni Thread 6/0 Rusty Brown
Body	Kiley's Nymph Skins - Rust
Thorax	UV Black and UV Hot Orange Ice Dubbing
Bead	Plummeting Tungsten Beads- Black Ruby 1/8
Hackle	Whiting Hen Cape, Black

Curtis Fry

October Caddis Soft Hackle

The October Caddis Soft Hackle fly pattern is credited to Curtis Fry of Fly Fish Food. He introduced this effective but simple pattern off their blog in Oct 2017. The October Caddis is an important hatch during the Fall. They are the last chance a trout has for a big meal with little effort prior to winter lethargy.

Life Cycle

The October Caddis are cased-type caddis that create a case of leaves and twigs to develop. As they get larger, they need to move to a larger case often made of gravel and cemented together with other mineral material. These cases can get to 1.5 inches in length. The larvae will feed on leaves and diatoms on the stream bottom, preferring moderately fast currents.

By mid-summer, they attach their cases to the substrate and seal off both ends of their case. By late summer, they molt into a pupa and emerge out of their cases. The October Caddis pupa like to swim along the bottom until they find rocks that will protrude to the surface. Once they find this rock, they will crawl up the rock to a few inches above the water surface and the adult will escape it’s pupal shuck. This period of movement is when the October Caddis Pupa wet fly is most effective.

The adults have orange bodies and gray wings. Emergence occurs at night but the trout will key upon the pupa as they are migrating along the bottom. The adult females fly off during the night and return about two weeks later to lay eggs on the water surface in the late afternoon and early evening. The wet fly should be presented along the bottom with the tungsten bead helping to keep the pattern down. Using a two fly rig will help in the presentation. Since these pupa do not swim to the surface, keep the flies along the bottom without using a wet-fly swing or lift, but have the nymph rig swing towards the shore with a slow retrieve.

Morrish October Pupa

Ken Morrish designed a soft hackle October Caddis Pupa pattern in the early 2000’s. It has a lot of influence from his earlier Dirty Bird pattern using a partridge hackle for legs but adding a brown grizzly hen hackle for the wing. Both are tied in the round giving this pattern a distinct soft hackle appearance.

Morrish Deep October Pupa

Hook	TMC 5263 #8-10
Thread	Uni Thread 6/0 Rusty Brown
Body	Haretron Cinnamon Caddis Dubbing
Ribbing	Amber Vinyl Ribbing, Medium
Bead	Black Nickel , 5/32 (4.0mm)
Weight	0.030 Lead-free wire, 10-12 wraps
Wing	CDL Hen Saddle, Speckled Shrimp Orange
Wingcase	Pearl Flashabou, 8 strands
Antennae	Natural Pheasant Tail Fibers
Collar	Rusty orange Hareline Dubbin, one turn and Spirit River UV2 Caddis/Nymph black dubbing
Hackle	Hungarian Partridge, one turn