Glass Bead Caddis Patterns

The Glass Bead Caddis is an awesome looking fly that can certainly be a producer, and the best part is they are cheap and easy to make. The instructions I have demonstrated are just basic ones, the fly can have additives such as flash, marabou, or rubber legs. Also, the glass beads that I have used are a prismatic pearl color. Its good for when the suns out to reflect some light. Glass Beads can also be used for stonefly bodies or mayfly nymphs as well. Since they are so cheap it would be a good idea to purchase a few different colors of beads.

The Glass Beads need not be purchased from your local fly supply for 1000% markup. Go to the craft section in Wal-Mart and look for Mainstays glass seed beads, I think they are somwhere around one dollar for about 50 thousand. Just take care not to spill the beads when tying.



The hook I have selected is a Size 14 Saber Caddis Curved. Any curved caddis hook will work but you are more than likey going to have to go barbless for this one.



Start out by sliding four glass beads onto the hook shank. The beads are super tiny so this part can be a little tricky.



Attach the thread near the back right at about 1/4 down the hook shank. Caddis patterns tied with more curvurture to the body look more realistic. Build up a small amount of thread.



Next step is to secure the beads at the rear of the hook. You do this with dubbing. I chose to use black for both sections, but somtimes a small portion of a bright or flashy dubbing fishes nice as well. Apply a small amount of dubbing to your thread and build a little ball to keep the beads from sliding off.



Use a half hitch to tie off in front of the dubbing in order to begin building the head of the fly.



Reattach in front of the bead closest to the eye of the hook and scrunch the beads toward the dubbing at the back of the fly.



Add some dubbing to your thread and begin to wrap the thorax of the fly. I wrap one bead in with the thorax in order to prevent the fly from looking like it has too long of a body.

Happy Holidays

Hope everyones Christmas went well and they got all the new fly fishing stuff they asked for. Santa was good to me and brought me some new North Face Gear, William and Joseph V2 Waders and Korker Guide Boots! Looking forward to New Years now!

Happy Holidays from Loomis.

Cabelas LSR Fly Reel

This post is from my personal experience with this reel,the Cabelas LSR Fly Reel. Ill continue saying that this reel is a piece of junk. I like Cabelas, I own rods, hunting gear and numerous other Cabelas items, but this reel is a total failure. My first complaint is the most obvious, the drag system. When I used this reel the first time I realized that my drag is really powerful, well almost too powerful. When I turn the drag up one click it is basically locked in, making it difficult to tune the drag to a medium setting for the latter part of the fight. A friend of mine owns the same reel and has said the same thing.

Secondly, the reel seat. Most quality reels are constructed so that the reel seat is apart of the main frame of the reel. This particular reel has small eye-glass screws that connect it with about two threads to the frame of the reel. Needless to say when walking the frozen banks of 16 mile I took a spill and the reel came apart. Luckily I was able to attach one screw to the frame while the other was broken off. Nice.

This reel just does not stand up to the test, given on my college budget its still in use however if I had it my way I'd have somthing a little nicer, just wanted to complain a little bit. This reel was obsolete in pre-production. My suggestion is to never buy this reel.

Egg Patterns

Lets face it the sucker spawn and glo bugs are the best fly patterns for steelhead and stocked trout, Period. Some tutorials that I have found on the internet demonstrate different instructions than the ones that I have provided but this is the method that I use and it saves much time and material.

Egg patterns can be tied and variated over and over again. I will be posting variations later, this tutorial is just the basic version of the suckerspawn and glo bug both of which account for more fish in the tribs than most flies. Your best bet for low, clear water is a small, subdued color. Creme, Light Pink, Light Green, and Cheese clors are usually your best bed, tied sparse and small on Size #16-18 Hooks. For the Mint Green water conditions encountered after run-off it is usually good to go bright, but subdued colors work as well. Tie flies for these conditions with a little more material, but not much more. Chartrueuse, Hot Pink, and White work well in these conditions. Purchasing the McFly Foam Clown Pack will give you a good selection of color and material to tie with.

For this particular fly, I used a MUSTAD C67S size 12 Egg Hook. Any 2x strong caddis curved or egg hook will work. Saber fly hooks are 6.99 for 100 and the size 10 egg hooks work very well for tying a bulk supply of egg patterns. They can be found at Indiana Angler 218 Grandview Ave. Indiana PA

Sucker Spawn

The Sucker Spawn is probably the most widely used egg pattern on the Great Lakes and especially in Pennsylvania. It works in any condition, any time of the year and for any trout anywhere. For this fly I use the same MUSTAD C67S but Curved Caddis hooks work just as well.

I use Rumph and Sons Waxed thread. The thread lays flatter than a moncord and prevents bulk. Flourescent red or Orange works the best.

Attach the thread and wrap backward just past the midway point of the hook shank. Any further will leave you with excess space after making the loops and make for a strange looking fly.

Use a piece of McFly foam about 2 or 3 inches. You don't need to use a large amount of this stuff. About 3 inches cut from the main strips will give you about 5-6 flies.

Attach the material with about 4 tight wraps of thread with the excess facing toward the eye. Cut the tail material as close to your thread wraps as you can.

Pinch the material between your thumb and forefinger making a first small loop then increasing the size as you go forward. A bodkin can be used if the material is laid flat against the hookshank over the bodkin place perpendicular to the shank and raised into a loop. Tie with 4 secure wraps and continue forward making 4 loops.

Leave a small piece of material to give the head of the fly some bulk.

Tying the head.

Whip finish with about 6 turns and apply a dab of head cement.

Finished Fly.

Glo Bug

This fly is tied with the same hook above, except the thread is different. For this fly I use Power Silk with a Ceramic Bobbin.

Start with about 15-20 wraps of thread. The Power Silk is very slippery on the hook and will spin off if not secured. Wrap forward than back over what you have down then back to the middle to secure the thread on the shank. Pull to make sure it will not spin off.

I use McFly foam for my egg patterns. The McFly Foams spongy texture allows for fuller flies and a more membrane-like appearance when wet. Take a 2 inch piece and double it over with a smaller piece on top for the dot.

Attach with three wraps of thread and pull down firmly on the thread to secure it. The silk is strong but not invincible, pull enough to secure it in place but theres no need to break the vice in the process. Theres no need to waste time with material under the hook shank, this step can be a damper on the entire fly to some.

Make one wrap 360 degrees around the material to get it to stand up into place.

Return the thread to the front of the material and whip finish with 8 turns. The silk is strong enough that you don't need head cement.

It's crucial that you pull the material up with your thumb and forefinger and make the cut about 1/8 of an inch above the hook shank for a size 14 fly. Experiment with higher or lower cuts to get the desired size. The material will fan out into a semi-ball which needs to be formed

Push down twice firmly with your thumb and forefinger then push in with both fingers toward the center of the hook shank to form a perfect ball.

Finished Fly.