X Caddis - Tan

"We came up with the X Caddis thirty-five plus fishing seasons ago. Like many of our fly patterns, this one was created to fool the larger resident rainbow trout of the Henry’s Fork.

It was my wife Jackie’s idea to tie a trailing-shimmering, sparkling shuck on a caddis imitation. Her reasoning was simple, if super-selective trout took Sparkle Duns with their trailing shuck for emerging and crippled mayflies why wouldn’t the same thing work with caddis imitations too?

We know that caddis, like mayflies, can experience difficulties emerging from their pupal shucks at times. Many end up trapped in their shucks entirely or with the shucks trailing off their body and wings fully emerged.

Fish may not always key in on cripples or impaired adults, but we’ve found this fly works well, in fact much better than standard ties like the Elk Hair Caddis. We fish it as a dry fly, upstream, dead-drifting is the most productive method, casting to individual fish that are rising.

The fly also works well when pulled under the surface in front of rising trout and allowed to pop to the surface."

- Signature Tyer Craig Mathews