Flies and Insects

Flies and the insects that they imitate.

Fly Fishing with Terrestrials

This is about the time of the year that my attention turns to terrestrial flies and the spectacular hits that can be had. Webster’s definition of terrestrial is “living on or in or growing from land”. Basically, terrestrial insects are insects that are born on land and remain on land all their life unless they are blown into the water by wind or accidentally get into the water some other way. They probably don't have the intelligence to know that water is dangerous to their well being and just land there by chance as well as anywhere else.

Mayflies Life Cycle

My friend Mike at Flytrip.com has sent me an exciting video about the giant mayflies of Europe. These life cycle of these giant mayflies is beautirully documented with amazing camera work. The camera has captured close ups of the entire life cycle of the giant mayflies. You will see some neat pictures of the trout taking the mayflies and finally the death of the mayflies. Please take the time to get past any commercials at the start of the video and you will be glad that you did.

Fly Fishing with Sulphur Duns

We at the Trout University store are introducing a new fly into our Perfect Fly line up and it will be available very soon. It is the Sulphur dun fly pattern. They are very similar to the Eastern Pale Evening Duns. They are very important where they exist and they can provide some excellent dry fly action when they hatch.

Cinnamon Caddis Part 4 Adult

Many anglers fish the adult imitation of the caddisfly during a hatch when they first begin to see the adults around the banks of the stream. That is a mistake. Although these caddis sometimes dip down and skitter across the water after hatching, they don't really lite on the water long enough for the trout to eat them until they begin to deposit their eggs, or the males happen to fall on the water when they die. Unlike mayflies, caddisflies sometimes live a relatively long time after they hatch. They can live for a week depending on the species and weather.

Cinnamon Caddis Part 3 Pupa

As with most other caddisflies, the main problem you face is determining when the hatch is taking place. When you see adult cinnamon caddis around the stream, flying and in the trees, grass and bushes, you don't necessarily know if they just hatched on hatched a few days earlier. Some stay out of the water for a few days before they deposit their eggs. Even when you see them on the water and darting down to the water, it doesn't necessarily mean they are laying eggs. They will do that before they deposit their eggs on occasions.

Cinnamon Caddis Fly Patterns Part 2

These caddisflies need plankton to survive and acidic, freestone streams that have little plankton are about the only trout streams that doesn't have them. To make this simple for you, consider this. If you find the rocks in the stream you are fishing are slick, and you have trouble wading without slipping, you can rest assured that there will be a good population of net-spinning caddisflies in the stream. In the Eastern United States and parts of the Mid-west, most of these net-spinners will be Ceratopsyche species, which are the Cinnamon Caddisfles.

Cinnamon Caddis Fly Patterns Now Available

There are two basic types of caddisflies that's determined by their larva - cased and non-cased. Cased caddis are easy to identify in their larval stage of life. They live in a case made of wood or small stones or rocks. Non-cased caddis larva is one of two different types. They are either free living caddis larva or net-spinning caddis larva.