In the context of dry fly fishing, you often hear certain flies or patterns thrown around by guys as their go to’s when nothing is working. Rusty Spinners and Blue Winged Olives being the most common in my experience. And while you hear quite a few flies thrown around as common confidence patterns, very rarely do you hear someone mention the Lafontaine caddis pupa. Most anglers don’t have one in their box, and even fewer have a box solely dedicated to them despite having a box full of nothing but rusty spinners and a separate box filled with BWO’s. I know this because I was guilty of the same thing. That changed when one morning I was fishing to a group of somewhat sporadic, but steady enough morning risers and could not get them to take my presentations with little bug life on the water. A guy I didn’t even know was behind me called out from the bank “they’re on caddis pupa” and motioned me into the shore. He looked and gave me one out of my own box that I didn’t even know I had/or what it was, which I tied on and shortly after caught the fish I had been throwing to. Like any confidence fly, my confidence in the Lafontaine Caddis Pupa started with that first fish.
After that day, I read up on Gary Lafontaine and his writings. Over time, I came to appreciate Gary Lafontaine’s research and creations when it comes to caddis flies as arguably the most impressive contribution to the sport of fly-fishing. The man was an astute angler that relied heavily on observation and science to develop his ideas at the vice and the way he fished on the water. This being a stark contrast to many modern day patterns that look good to fisherman in fly shop bins but mimic nothing-natural streamside. The variety of patterns Lafontaine developed for imitating the numerous caddis life stages (many of which he developed in the early 1980s) still serve as the best caddis patterns to date when fishing to picky fish on caddis emergers/pupa, validating how thorough and precise his approach was when it came to studying these insects and fish feeding on them. To this end, Lafontaine’s research and knowledge detailed in his book “Caddis Flies” still serves as the bible 30 years later for understanding these insects and how to fish them on the water. Bottom line you should read it. Some of the most technical dry fly situations each year involve complex caddis hatches with fish keying on vulnerable, and lesser-fished stages of the insect. These situations are often misinterpreted by anglers as fish being selective on mayfly emergers, due in part to the passed down cliché that “fish don’t eat caddis” and in part because of the angler’s inclination to think caddis only when adults are visibly being taken in splashy form on the surface.
Specifically turning back to Lafontaine’s caddis pupa, the fly is often underappreciated in my opinion because of its strange appearance, which causes many to shy away from it or not understand where it applies. A photo below details a standard version of Lafontaine’s pupa for those that may be unfamiliar. (tied and provided by Joey Runco)
The Lafontaine Caddis Pupa is perhaps the best garbage feeder/don’t know what else to throw at them bug out there for several reasons. First, any good garbage fly usually imitates something that is around for much of the season. When you can’t precisely match the hatch, you throw something that is still relevant and the fish see regularly, hoping the fish will slip up on whatever they are keyed on and make one mistake by taking your fly. Caddis are around for much of the season on most waters. While many dry fly anglers on the Catskill rivers, and other waters with prolific mayfly hatches like to claim “fish don’t eat caddis”, they are mostly saying that because they are regurgitating what someone else told them and going off their experience of seeing sporadic to no rises when it comes to caddis adults. Yes, it is true that spoiled/smart trout with a variety of food options will most often ignore caddis adults or rise to them sporadically at best. This being due to the fact that caddis adults are sporadic in the way that they fly themselves, making them more difficult to size up on the surface and something fish realize is a waste of energy. However, that does not mean that fish do not eat caddis. Just like large trout often prefer an emerging mayfly over a high floating dun, they also prefer a more vulnerable stage of the caddis fly as well- that being the pupa. Caddis pupa are in the drift as often as any other insect you can list on most waters, and the fish are accustomed to seeing them and often feed on them. In fact, a good caddis hatch mixed with a good mayfly hatch can many times cause the fish not to rise at all, due to the fact that so many caddis pupa are in the drift subsurface. But fish feed on pupa in the surface film as well. In addition, just like a fish will take an emerger pattern even when clearly on natural mayfly duns, the same is true for caddis flies. A fish rising to caddis adults will also often be equally willing to take a Lafontaine caddis pupa. Bigger fish also tend to take caddis pupa patterns best even when sporadically rising to caddis adults, similar to how lower floating mayfly emergers work best in these situations.
When The Lafontaine Caddis Pupa Works Best:
While I probably tie on a caddis pupa dry atleast once on most days on the water, the fly works best in my experience in upstate New York during the “inbetween hatches” time frame during the morning-afternoon hours. The inbetween hatches time frame being the early to middle of May. Fish turn to caddis more heavily during this time frame as early season mayfly hatches have played their course, and later spring/early summer mayfly hatches have yet to start. The lack of availability of mayflies during this lull period causes trout feed more heavily on caddis, particularly from a surface standpoint.
For this reason, often during this time period I will try 3-5 different styles of Lafontaine’s caddis pupa on a fish before giving up on the concept and moving on to a new pattern entirely. I’ll start with the one I can see best being a Lafontaine pupa with the elk hair wing, then I’ll go to one with a small snowshoe wing, then perhaps go to one that is just the zylon pupa bubble greased with no wing, and so on. Where I start in terms of pattern is dictated by the rise form and how subtle it is and what I think I can get away with. As Examples, below are photos are different versions of the pattern so that the above makes sense. (tied by/photo credit: Joey Runco)
The Advantages of the Lafontaine Caddis Pupa over other Popular Caddis Patterns:
While I think the traditional Elk hair Caddis is now acknowledged as a classic more than a modern day go to for many anglers, I also think the instinct to resort to an adult caddis pattern when an angler believes a fish is on caddis still persists. The often splashy/aggressive rises, the often high numbers of visible adult caddis flies flying in the air during these occasions, and the fact adult caddis patterns are all mostly easy to see patterns on the water causes anglers to resort to them as their first choice. I’m guilty of this too at times, because its fun to fish a high floating fly I can easily see and watch the fish eat it. But after a couple passes if it doesn’t work, I remember what I should have tied on in the first place.
After I do tie on a Lafontaine caddis pupa, I am reminded how irrational I was prior to doing so, as the Lafontaine caddis pupa is equally visible when compared to many fishy adult caddis patterns. The benefit of the Lafontaine pupa however is it looks low floating to the fish, while still being very visible to the fisherman. After realizing this enough times, I started resorting to this pattern as the go to right away when believing the surface activity in front of me was being generated by caddis flies. The reasoning being you are not compromising on fly visibility, and are mimicking a phase of the caddis that fish tend to feed on more heavily, especially bigger fish that prioritize efficiency and are unwilling to come up repeatedly for a caddis adult teasing them above the surface.
While not the way you naturally want to approach fish that appear to be rising, you are bound to learn the many ways the Lafontaine caddis pupa can be fished by accident when you start hooking fish after letting it sink at the end of your drift. The fly doubles as a subsurface wet and just generates strikes period when in the water whether it be on the swing at the end of the drift, when being stripped back as you plan to recast, and so on. For nymphing, a Lafontaine caddis pupa used on a tag end of an indy rig, or any nymph rig can be deadly and generate aggressive strikes from fish when fished mid depth. From the dry fly standpoint, I often do not put floatant on my fly when fishing this pattern to a difficult fish I’ve tried other low profile/smaller flies on. I like to present it where it is barely floating as it drifts into the fish. If that doesn’t work, I’ll even let it sink right before it gets to the fish, and can usually still see the fish rise telling me when to set. Understood gentlemen, this is not what the dry fly angler that lives for visualizing the eat is looking for, but on a tough fish that you’ve thrown everything at, this is a great way to get the fish to take after none of your 20-24 olives, cripples, spinners, and other picky fish go to’s have worked. This isn’t stooping to tying on a 6’’ zebra midge dropper and waiting for a high floating dry to sink. And btw, how many of you clearly saw that 22 or smaller BWO as the fish took it, or at least you think it did based on where you thought your fly was? I rest my case.
While I rely heavily on the Lafontaine caddis pupa on the waters I fish most, I rely on them even more on waters I fish less. When fishing a river I have little to no experience on, I fish them because it’s the most technical pattern of the most common insect seen by trout. I hedge my bets as its a universal fish catcher.
A final point I’ll make on caddis pupa is their effectiveness when fishing during the October Caddis time frame. This is arguably the most notorious “fish don’t eat caddis” example where large October Caddis fill the sky and you see very few to no fish rising to them. That said, when you find the occasional fish dimpling, the pupa in a large size 14 give or take will spare you the fall small blue winged olive dilemma once again. I don’t need to explain why a durable dry fly made largely of synthetic material on a size 14 hook beats fishing a size 20 dark dun cdc mayfly in cold damp weather. You don’t need to feel old as you struggle to see that dark dun wing on a cold and cloudy fall day as it floats in to a subtle riser, or even worse and older after next defaulting to the oversized 10 Iso parachute regardless of the fact Iso’s are done and the subtle rise form already told you its overkill. Middle of the road will never hurt you. Enter the size 14 October caddis pupa. Visible, low floating, relevant, effective.
Sarcasm aside, the fly looks weird and may be why you perhaps haven’t used it as much as you should. I get it looks like a fly that sinks, but at the same time promise you it floats and the fish eat it. If you can get over the hump caused by your initial suspicions, having a variety of different styles of this pattern as depicted above helps. Trying multiple versions of this pattern before giving up on it has often gotten it done for me in garbage feeding situations where there wasn’t much on the water but a fish was rising steady enough to justify staying on them. The rusty spinner and blue winged olive as tied in many forms are undisputed bail out flies, but most know that already, which leaves room for this sneaky third in the rotation. The added plus of having a bigger hook and ability to fish heavier tippet with these patterns also makes them a better choice when fishing to large fish where hook size/tippet strength can matter. Because no one believes in a fly just because someone tells them to, I don’t expect this to be the first fly you tie on next time it makes sense. Just throw a few in your box and leave them there to look at, and perhaps tie on when you are about to give up on a tough one. If you never get around to tying it on, perhaps read Lafontaine’s Caddis Flies book if you need an added nudge, as it will open your eyes to what commonly regurgitated fly-fishing rhetoric fails to explain. Trout do eat caddis, and eat them often.
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