April Flyswap is CLOSED -

[SullyTM]

Mike...They look nice. Kind of a "Pump Me Up" poopah clone.

Good luck on the Feather...Don't let Adam and Jason out fish ya...

Thom.

[Hairstacker]

Mike, is that THE poopah pattern you've been catching all those steelhead on?!? Man, getting a copy of that fly alone is worth the price of admission to this swap.

[MSP]

Hey Mike, it is basically the same but with a carpet wing. Remove the carpet wing and yes it is the fly I was using on the Trinity and the American. I do tie these up in olive, worm brown, tan, and orange.

Thom, if I were a betting man I wouldn't put any money on me getting the most fish tomorrow. These young wippersnappers fish pretty tough.

[Hairstacker]

Mike, I see. . . . So the addition of the carpet wing is to make it shad-specific? In other words, you don't ever use the carpet wing when fishing for steelhead? Just want to make sure I understand correctly.

[MSP]

Oh no Mike, I use this pattern as my Caddis Emerger. Very effective on the 1/2 pounders (if that is what they are, see Steelhaed and Salmon post ) when the caddis are in town. Especially on the American in another month or so, if the water ever gets down to 2,500 or lower. I really don't fish for Shad. I'm always after the 1/2 pounders and have run into a lot of success with the Shad. A standard Bead Head Fox Poopah in worm brown or olive works just as well. Size 12 or 14 will do the trick.

Not much Caddis activity when the adult fish are in so I use the large Poopah patterns without the wing. Size 8, 2x long, 2x strong.

Ok, now I'm confused.

[Hairstacker]

Thanks Mike! I've seen The Pictures, so I always pay very close attention when you make references to flies. Kind of like EF Hutton time.

[MSP]

As you can see Mike I am always making reference to the same fly. I think most of my success has come from being in the right place at the right time. Not sure the flies have had anything to do with it. But I'm not one to argue with success!

[Darian]

Ya know Mike if all of us had the same attitude we wouldn't be loaded down with a ton of flies every time we hit the river.... Of course, Bill wouldn't have flies for sale either....

[MSP]

That's is true Darian. But I'm just as bad as anyone else when it comes to having a few hundred flies on the water. I carry quite a variety of flies but I do have my confidence patterns. I never used a Poopah in the 20 years I lived in Colorado. Mr. Fox designed a very nice fly that can be modified to do a lot of things. I have noticed they don't make a very good dry pattern when using a bead but using a dry hackle instead of Partridge, no bead, and using thread to hold down the Vernille instead of wire it does make a very effective dry. I guess when you get old you get set in your ways. I heard somewhere that if it's not broke don't fix it

[JD]

Mike,

How do you like to taper the polar braid on your caddis pattern? I use the same stuff on a similar pattern, but getting a decent taper on the polar braid because of the different melting points of the material (cord in a mylar braided mesh). Soldering gun ended up working reasonably well, but I've been look for other solutions for a while and I was wondering what you used.

I too have been using "small" caddis patterns for shad with great success, although I haven't tried nymphing for shad yet.