Fly of the Week #9- ESP Caddis

What is ESP?  If your some sort of astral traveler and fringe science geek, ESP stands for extrasensory perception. I'm not discounting ESP and I certainly have had experiences that are unexplained, but it is still on par with backwoods lore like Bigfoot and locally-- Mel's Hole.  Some might imagine ESP to be a cool "power" but how fun would it be to be able to know when the fish are going to bite?  That sounds totally lame to me.

Half the fun of fishing is the suspense that builds as you ply the waters in hope of the take.  On a slow day, you might even count how many takes you had.  Of course, counting fish is either a sin, or a requirement, depending on the camp or company you keep. I will admit to being a fish estimator, as in, "Ya, we got into them, we probably caught 12 to 14 fish."  or "They all ran 16 inches".  The times I do wish I had ESP is when I talk to people on the river and they are telling me about having had a 40 fish day and they were all over 18 inches.  On those occasions, I just take 50% off each number and call it good.

Emergent Sparkle Caddis

Colors- green, tan, olive, brown, your choice

Ok, Ok, so back to the other "ESP".  We covered X-caddis last week and the picture should give those seasoned anglers a big hint.  It's a famous fly pattern and it started with Gary Lafontaine.  His work  was based on in-stream  insect observation and the patterns to imitate caddis.  We now know the ESP as the Emergent Sparkle Pupa.  It's a killer caddis emerger pattern and will fish circles around other patterns during a good caddis hatch.

It's an almost too easy to tie pattern.  It can be tied or bought in several colors- the green above being a popular color, as well as olive, brown and tan.  Matching the naturals in your home water is still a valuable route to take to success.  To fish them, try doping the deer hair only and use a tight line or shallow nymph technique.  Swinging this fly can also produce strikes.  It can be a great small water fly or dropper.

ESP Recipe
Hook- Dai-Riki #135 or #125, Sz 12-20
Thread- Veevus- brown or black
Underbody- many variations- from green flash to dubbed antron, Haretron or Ice Dub
Overbody- Antron yarn- tail is clipped from overbody so be mindful of that.
Wing- Deer hair- I like the X-caddis hair we sell.  It comes in natural, dun and bleached.
Head- Dark brown dubbing- Haretron, Hare's Ear or something similar that makes a tight dubbing noodle. No need for a buggy look, just a clean head.

That's about it.  Tie some up and see what magic you can make.  If your really good, you can "know" when fishing is best, but if you're really smart, you will just call the shop and get all the details!

WBFC Staff