Caddis
wanna be fly fisher.
Males have a black body, females are white. That's the difference. Once you have that all figured out, you'll need to figure out the size.
On the water this weekend, there were numerous male trico spinners. They were all about a size 24 - 26. I was a bit stupid because I just figured that whatever Trico's were around had to be females. I fished for about 3hrs on Sunday and in about 1hrs worth of time and after 3-4 fly changes to the same fly in different sizes, I landed 2 trout. What was I doing wrong? The problem was that I never looked down to see what the fish were actually taking. If I had looked down, I would have noticed the hundreds of male trico spinners at my feet. After changing my fly, first cast landed a nice brown trout. I think I may have caught another 3 fish or so over the next 2hrs. These fish were a bit tough, but not for the guy up stream from me who had been using the black trico all along. The joke was on me! All in all, I fished until it rained cats and dogs. I purposely left my raincoat at home because I thought the sun was coming out!
Now here's a quick tip. You've figured out that the trout are presently taking _________ (male/female) trico's. You've tried all different sizes and are presenting the fly to the trout on a silver platter. Fish will not give your trico the time of day. What to do? Well, something I've done is to purposely slap the fly onto the water so it lands partially submerged. This works great! There is a link under the Entomology section that describes how to use Trico's. They claim to use a weighted trico pattern to help it sink quicker. Not that there's anything wrong with nymphing or using emerger patters, I prefer to have the trico laying just on the surface rather than working it like a sinking trico. This way I can still see the exciting rise and take (or refusal). Another thing they mention is that they tie the Trico on a size 20 hook. I personally think that's much too big (at least for the rivers I fish in). If you catch a few trico's, you will notice that they are normally in the size 26 range. I've matched them up on the water and am convinced. I should have taken photo's, but I wasn't thinking of that at the time. The article also mentions a tippet of 5x. WOW! 5x won't even fit through the eye of the hook I'm using. This weekend I was using 9x.
On the water this weekend, there were numerous male trico spinners. They were all about a size 24 - 26. I was a bit stupid because I just figured that whatever Trico's were around had to be females. I fished for about 3hrs on Sunday and in about 1hrs worth of time and after 3-4 fly changes to the same fly in different sizes, I landed 2 trout. What was I doing wrong? The problem was that I never looked down to see what the fish were actually taking. If I had looked down, I would have noticed the hundreds of male trico spinners at my feet. After changing my fly, first cast landed a nice brown trout. I think I may have caught another 3 fish or so over the next 2hrs. These fish were a bit tough, but not for the guy up stream from me who had been using the black trico all along. The joke was on me! All in all, I fished until it rained cats and dogs. I purposely left my raincoat at home because I thought the sun was coming out!
Now here's a quick tip. You've figured out that the trout are presently taking _________ (male/female) trico's. You've tried all different sizes and are presenting the fly to the trout on a silver platter. Fish will not give your trico the time of day. What to do? Well, something I've done is to purposely slap the fly onto the water so it lands partially submerged. This works great! There is a link under the Entomology section that describes how to use Trico's. They claim to use a weighted trico pattern to help it sink quicker. Not that there's anything wrong with nymphing or using emerger patters, I prefer to have the trico laying just on the surface rather than working it like a sinking trico. This way I can still see the exciting rise and take (or refusal). Another thing they mention is that they tie the Trico on a size 20 hook. I personally think that's much too big (at least for the rivers I fish in). If you catch a few trico's, you will notice that they are normally in the size 26 range. I've matched them up on the water and am convinced. I should have taken photo's, but I wasn't thinking of that at the time. The article also mentions a tippet of 5x. WOW! 5x won't even fit through the eye of the hook I'm using. This weekend I was using 9x.
