Dirty Tape Wing Caddis

While wandering round Sainsbury's this morning in search of my breakfast I aimlessly arrived at the stationary aisle, while staring at the many interesting office supplies my eyes glanced over the tape and instantly my brain kicked in....Tape Wing Caddis.

At the bench I couldn't really be bothered taping feathers so I decided to get a bit dirty with the pattern and instead of feathers I mottled the tape with dirt from my carpet, not that my carpet is all that dirty but if you rub tape on any carpet you'll find some stuff sticking to it, try it. Once the tape glue is covered in fluff and won't stick together it's time to fold and shape the wing, with that done it time to move onto the rest of the fly. I basically tie a dubbed F-Fly, secure the wing and hackle with CDC, easy peasy.

Dirty Tape Wing Caddis

The tape can be coloured with marker pen, the dubbed body can be any colour and the same goes for the cdc, the pattern is generic, fishes well and looks pretty spiffing. The three above are #10 amber, #14 brown and #14 no hackle, tied with various threads and dubbing etc.

Tying over bacon rolls and coffee is always a nice start to the day!

Materials:

Hook: Your choice #10 - #16
Thread: Your choice
Dubbing: SLF #23 - #27
Wing: Clever Tape (white)
Hackle: CDC (colour to match)

Bit Of A Nightmare

On Friday I managed a couple of hours on a local burn but was having a bad day, every other cast seemed to end with my flies in a tree, a tangle, a snag or something other than a fish. I guess we all have bad days but this was probably the best bad day I've ever had. After a couple of hours on the burn I'd missed and lost over a dozen trout, I'd lost about as many flies and had lost my temper twice having a verbal outburst at least once.

I reached the lower reaches of the burn and decided I'd probably be better off on the main river so I headed to a pool that usually produces a couple of trout. the first trout I cast to was missed and the second was spooked. I then went on to miss another three trout and lost two on top of that. I was about at the end of my tether when I slipped on the riverbank and snapped one of the two rods I had with me....arrgh!

Saved a Blank

I could have totally lost my head at this point, I'd had an absolutely awful session and wasn't expecting it to get any better. I decided to grin and bear it, I popped my snapped rod into the nearest bin and headed to the next run, another that always gives up a trout or two. I took the only fish of the session from this run, a reminder of why I love fly fishing, he came straight up for my Klink and fought well.

The very next cast I put the Klink into the tree on the far bank :-)

I switched to a woolly bugger and continued to bash away, I missed another, then another and then hooked into a good fish, much better than average on this stretch of river.

My tippet snapped, I put my head in my hands and contemplated snapping another rod out of pure frustration. All things considered this was a totally disastrous fishing session that I hope to never repeat. I guess I can have a wee smile to myself now (a couple of days later) but I really didn't enjoy the experience one bit.

A Session Cut Short

I headed onto the Water of Leith this afternoon planning to fish for a couple of hours however as I stepped across the river to the first pool on my list my bladder kindly notified me that it was time to find a toilet. I decided to fish for as long as I could before heading back home to relieve myself. This is hardly fishing talk...

I hadn't seen a fish rise this season on the WoL but mostly due to being on the river in the wrong conditions, I opted to fish a Klink and a Killer Bug to start, I was fishing through the first pool when I was distracted by someone shouting and at this exact time a fish rose to my dry fly and I didn't even react, too late. I then saw my first rise of the season, I switched a fly an popped on an Olive Biot Paradun, the fish came straight up but refused the fly, a size to large maybe ?. I dropped down a size and cast again and again he came and refused, I was a bit puzzled but as he rose the second time I heard a rise in the tail of the pool.

Looking For A Rise

I watched the area for a couple of minutes before the fish rose again, I crept along the bank and into position. The trout was lying a few feet ahead of the lip and was now taking every olive dun that floated within easy reach. I waited for another few rises before casting, within the first foot of the drift he came up for my fly and was hooked, the fight was spectacular with a lot of acrobatics and as the trout tired I saw just how lightly he was hooked, in all fairness I was a bit lucky the hook held.

First WoL Brownie Of 2013

He came to hand for a photo before release, a lovely wild WoL brownie, I returned over 160 trout to the river last season and about half were stockies, I'd be more than happy to return a quarter of that this season if they were all of the same quality as this one, wild, hard fighting and stunning!

That was it, my bladder had enough and I had to scurry home to the relief that can only be found in one room of the house. I did consider heading back out over the fence but I didn't want to spoil what had been a perfect short session.