House building caddis larva are available in most waters all year round, and are an important segment of the diet of trout and grayling. There are many techniques that have been developed over the years from fly tying benches all over the world to imitate the house of the caddis larva, but this technique really gives the right impression. This is a pattern I believe was developed in the US, but other than that I cant find any other information about it. The great thing about this pattern is if you trim the rubber legs close to the body you get the impression of a caddis larva house built out of gravel, but if you spin the rubber legs not so tight and trim them a little longer it makes for a great house made of vegetation and sticks. Also the rubber gives that extra needed weight when you need to get down deep and not least extremely durable.
You may find that this isn´t the easiest pattern to tie at the first attempt as the rubber legs seem to have a life of their own, but after a few attempts is no more difficult then any other pattern. Try mixing colours and rubber types to achieve different effects.
Hook Mustad R72NP-BR # 12-6 with Bead head
Tying thread Dyneema
Body Rubber legs
Collar CdC
Head Course antron dubbing
- 1
Place a bead head on hook and your hook in the vice.
Attach tying thread to hook and run a foundation of thread along the whole hook shank.
Cut 3 small strips ca. 2 cm long, of double rubber legs in various colours and diameters if available.
Tie in the three rubber legs at the rear of the hook. If you are going to use heavy rubber legs, with a large diameter it is best to make a foundation of tapered loose dubbing on the hook shank first, otherwise the rubber will not flare as easy as fine rubber legs.
Once they are secure you can pull on them to split the double legs into single.
Carry on with the same procedure, mixing the colours as you go along the hook shank.
After each bunch of rubber legs is attached use the bead head to push the legs and pack them tightly. This will give a more compact body.
Attach more rubber legs until you have covered all but 3-4 mm of hook shank.
Now you can trim the house / larva case.
Continue all around the body of the fly until you have the desired size and shape.
Spin a couple of CdC hackles in a dubbing loop, just behind the bead head.
Wind on the dubbing loop brushing the CdC back over the body of the fly with each turn, so as not to trap the fibers.
Now dubb the tying thread with a little coarse dubbing with longish fibers and dubb the head of the fly tight into the bead head.
Whip finish and remove the tying thread. Using an old tooth brush brush out all the CdC and dubbing fibers, so they lie back over the body.
The finished elasticaddis.
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Like the pattern great idea and I was wondering what rubber material is the double rubber legs. If you can let me know I can use this for my patterns
Hi Brian, Thanks for your comment. The rubber material is just regular rubber legs, they come in strips of ten legs, I just tear off two at a time to tie inn.
Haha, that’s the way! Any fly tied with rubberlegs is a good fly. Actually I have used rubberlegs in a similar way. I even tried to make a “hackle” with rubberlegs in a thread loop. My flies didn’t turn out as well as these though…
Thanks Big Trout, I have many more rubberlegs patterns that I will be posting later, so keep tuned!