Crunchies

Crunchies

text, photos, performance by Jakub Chruszczewski ( text appeared in WW 2011)

Crinoids are - next to mayflies - an order of insects of the greatest importance to the fly fisherman. This is because they are a very important component of the food of salmonids caught by the fly method. Besides, due to the huge number and variety of species, their imitations can be used with all variations of the fly method, in probably all conditions, in many types of fisheries, basically all season long.

 

Perhaps the method most favored by anglers - the dry fly - offers the possibility of using a wide variety of imitations of the perfect insect stage. Here we have a choice of flies in sizes from #16 all the way up to # 8, made from the full range of materials used for shooting dry flies. A dry caddisfly imitation should float well, as we will often use it in fast, rough water. On the other hand, in smooth and calm water, such a fly can be guided by causing a streaking effect. Since many species of caddisflies are able to run quite well on the surface, not guiding the fly very accurately, allowing it to drift, or even just intentionally streaking (which would be inadvisable even when fishing with a dry mayfly) can sometimes be very provocative for a feeding fish.

Good buoyancy of a dry caddisfly will be obtained by using good quality materials and proper fly construction. The obvious rule is to build the fly on a thin hook, designed for making dry flies. For the wings you can use winter deer hair, CDC, but also other types of hair and more traditional materials, such as feathers of game birds. Colors - from gray, ash, through beige, all shades of brown, to almost black. Of course, combinations of the mentioned materials are possible, which sometimes gives very interesting results. Bodies of dry cockles, most often relatively thick, are built from dubbing materials with the lowest possible absorbency. Most often we make the trunks of dry cocklebur in all shades of brown and olive, as well as yellow and orange. A very characteristic element of the dry cockle is a double blackberry made of rooster neck feathers in shades of brown. One, of the pallmer type, on the torso, the other (often a little longer and in a different shade) in front of the wings, tied as the last element of the fly. If you want the fly to stand high on the surface and be less prone to being drowned by heavily rippled water, both scissors, the front one and the one on the torso, can be made double, using two feathers for each. If, on the other hand, we want the midge to swim low, in a position that well imitates an insect in the last stage of transformation, we can dispense with the blackberry on the torso, and project the front one from underneath so that it supports the midge from the sides, only preventing it from tipping over. Such a fly should rest on the surface from behind with the tips of the wings.

In our waters, caddisflies in the perfect insect stage appear roughly from April to the end of October. During this entire period, you should be able to get good results with a dry fly. When late in the evening we observe a mass flight of caddisflies (although this also happens in the middle of the day) the best time to try our dry imitations will be the next day. Although no insects can be seen on the surface of the water, fish are eager to take dry caddisflies. One of my colleagues accurately called this phenomenon feeding „from memory”.

When I hit an outcrop of caddisflies during the day, my favorite method of fishing is - already described on another occasion - the „bottom” method. This is a specific variation of the wet fly fishing method, when we use an imitation of an insect that, after pupating and leaving the cocoon, travels towards the surface for final transformation.

Females of some species of caddisflies dive to lay eggs. This is one of the times when you can try wet fly fishing. Imitations should be selected according to the appearance of the insects you observe over the water. They can be classic wet flies, or wet versions of dry caddisflies, made with materials used for tying wet flies - a hen instead of a rooster for a blackberry, a saturated dubbing, a heavy hook. Wet fly fishing for fish that feed on caddisflies is very unpopular among our fly fishermen. And it's a pity - after all, with a wet fly we can imitate an insect in the bottom stage, a dead insect that has suffered something and is being carried away by the current, or just a female diving to lay eggs. In any case, when there is no indication of what method to use, or the method - seemingly properly chosen - does not bring the expected results, then I reach for the wet method. After all, my favorite method....

All year round, including winter, as long as conditions allow, we successfully fish with nymphs. The larvae of various species of caddisflies build houses out of available material, which they attach to the substrate, or are able to move with them. Others build a house only for the purpose of pupating. Some species do not build shelters and move freely along the bottom of the fishery. All of them - house or homeless - are carried away by the water current under certain conditions. Fish prey on bottoms moving toward the surface, devour larvae carried by the water, or actively retrieve them from the bottom. With a huge variety of species, the range of sizes, shapes, colors and modes of behavior gives the angler who enjoys nymph fishing an unlimited range of possibilities when it comes to choosing methods and imitations. In most cases, a Polish specialty is used - a short nymph using heavy imitations that allow you to lead the set deep, in a fast current. The specialized equipment used nowadays for nymph fishing and the materials used to build the heaviest possible nymphs (lead lamé, brass and tungsten heads) allow a skilled fly fisher to explore larger and larger areas of water, once inaccessible to him. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. But I have the impression that what brings good results in competitions even of international rank should not be transferred unreflectively and without restraint to the field of recreational fishing. In my opinion, this is not the way to go. To be clear - I am not an enemy of fishing with a weighted nymph. It may just not be my favorite, and certainly not the only one.

 

                                                                                              Kuba Chruszczewski

 Descriptions for flies.

 

1.

Thorax - tip of orange dubbing, rest - brown dubbing

Wings - a bunch of rays of the saddle feather of a cree rooster

Blackberry - brown rooster

 

2.

Torso - olive dubbed

Scroll - olive green leading thread

Blackberry - front and on the trunk - brown cockerel

Wings - three CDC feathers laid flat, on this a bunch of winter deer hair

 

3.

Thorax - dubbed golden olive green

Scroll - yellow leading thread

Blackberry - on the torso brown cockerel, front - brown badger cockerel

Wings - aileron of mallard duck, arranged in a canopy

 

4.

Torso - green dubbing imitating egg packet, the rest - dubbed from beige wool and hare hair, flash

Scroll - gold wire

Wings - rudder of golden pheasant hen

Blackberry - dark brown hen

 

5.

Torso - olive dubbing, gray ostrich, covered with green body stretch

Scroll - gold wire

Legs - rays of the rudder of the golden pheasant rooster

 

6.

Trunk - Fury foam in light beige color covered with transparent film

Wrap - gold wire

Blackberry - grizzly hen

Head - black, tungsten

 

7.

Thorax - ¾ - gray-brown, mottled dubbing, ¼ - yellow dubbing

Wrap - copper wire

Blackberry - a brown hen.