The Best Caddis This Year ~ Coffin's "Wired Up Ice" 04Nov22

It definitely doesn't just need to be a Mother's Day caddis hatch for caddis in our Rocky Mtn rivers ~ though that's fun. From May to August there'll be plenty of caddis in many of our waters, so I often add a weighted caddis larvae when nymphing. There are so many useful caddis patterns out there (like LaFontaine's awesome sparkle pupa) but I haven't really seen what, in 2022, was my most productive imitation. It might just be that I went to it more instead of something else for caddis during summer ('cause I made quite a few of 'em), but I caught plenty of fish in all my regular haunts on the tungsten head, wire body, CDC variant I'll describe here. On a #18 TMC 2457 I mount a 2mm black tungsten bead and use black thread to tie on a Ultrawire brassie-sized chartreuse or green wire body from back bend to front. I then make a smallish thorax of dubbed peacock-colored ice over the wire and open spot. Then I tie in natural CDC feathers by the tip and wrap 2-3 turns for air bubbles, legs, antennae and a buggy feel. I finish this fly with a smidge more peacock ice dub to force the CDC rearward - and then whip finish. I gotta get a better name than TH wire body CDC caddis, but I'll be prepared for next summer in any event.

OK... As is my practice to name my flies after music-inspired stuff, I am naming this caddis pupa "Wired Up Ice" ~ it's good for the fly and it connotes the cabling like MIDI and other interconnects in audio gear, and the "ice" make the 3 word name very unique.