sparkle sparkle

As promised in an earlier post, here's the dirt on the caddis nymph pattern that put me on to some fish the other day. The sparkle yarn caddis:


A simple pattern really; a beadhead, a dubbed body made from a custom blend of green sparkle yarn and short crimp aurora Angelina fibers, gold wire rib, partridge soft hackle legs/antennae, and a peacock glimmer flash chenille thorax. I tied this pattern on several different styles of hook, knowing that the hook bend and gape can present this fly in several different styles.

The hook styles were a 2X heavy scud hook, a small forged stainless salt hook (o'shaugnessy), a 2X heavy curved wire caddis/hopper nymph hook, and a 2X heavy egg hook. I liked the presentation of the egg hook the best, and the wide gape should allow for easier hookups and a deeper hook penetration.

I tied a variation with just wrapping the sparkle yarn on the hook. While it gives a more distinct profile to the pattern, I prefer the Angelina/Yarn dubbing blend. The Angelina should provide that extra bump that, when added to the teased out yarn, will mimis a trapped gas bubble, much like antron yarn does on a sparkle pupa pattern.

Fish on!