Just in case anyone is interested I thought I'd share the recipe that it took several weeks to perfect, and which the trout at Hot Creek couldn't stay off of. As I am having trouble with getting photos posted I won't be providing visuals.

Hook: standard dry fly, size 20, 22
Thread: gray 8/0
Abdomen: Adams gray, super fine or quill
Hackle: dark dud
Under wing: light dun hackle fibers
Over wing: fine deer body hair (very mottled)

I prefere the quill body version because it floats like a cork even after catching a fish, with very little drying.

1-Start thread 2 hook eye(HE) lengths from the front of the hook and wrap to the bend.
2-Tie in a quill, at a point on the quill that is 2x the size of the diamater of the hook shank and wrap the thread forward to within 2 HE lengths of the eye. Wrap the quill forward, with no gaps to where the thread is, tie off, trim and cover with thread. ***Quills must be soaked in water for 10-30 minutes before use, you can find more information about tying with quills in any of the instructional books by A.K. Best.***
2B- To use super fine dubbing: wax the thread and apply a small amount of dubbing, twist it onto the thread. Then create a dubbing loop and twist tight, almost to the point of breaking. Bring the thread forward, same as quill. Wrap the loop forward to a point 2HE lengths behind the eye, tie off, trim and cover with thread. By using the tightly twisted loop the result is a finely segmented body without the need for a ribbing. It looks clean and doesn't hold as much water as a conventional dubbing application.
3- Tie in a hackle that is 1 size larger than the hook(i.e. 18 hackle for 20 hook and 20 for 22 hook), at a backwards 45 degree angle, with the point toward the back of the hook. Make 3 wraps OVER the forward end of the body. On the last wrap bring the hackle to the front of the body as it passes under the hook and tie in leaving as much as possible of the hook shank exposed, trim and cover.
4-Carefully trim the fibers from just the top, center, 45 degrees of the hackle. This will keep the wing from lifting too much when applied to the shank.
5-Cover the exposed hook shank with ONE layer of thread and return the thread to the front of the hackle with one pass.
6-Tie in a quantity of light dun hackle fibers equal to 1/3, by bulk, of what you would normally use for an Elk Hair Caddis by making 2, snug, but not tight, wraps around the fibers. The fibers should extend just to the end of the hook bend. Let the thread hang and using your thumbnail spread the fibers across the hook so that they are positioned like an open Japanese fan, covering 180 degrees of the top of the hook shank. Make 2 more tight wraps on top and pass the thread under the tag end 2 more wraps. Bring the thread back up to the top. Do not trim yet. *** Try to get the dark dun hackle wraps to spread out using the position of the light dun wing fibers.***
7-Tie in the deer hair in an amount equal to 1/2, by bulk, of what you would normally use for an Elk Hair Caddis using the same technique as above. The length should be 1/2 hook gap distance beyond the bend. Wrap the thread under the hackle and deer hair wing fibers just enough to cause them to lift off the shank at a 45 degree angle. Whip finish. Trim just like an Elk Hair Caddis and cement.

This fly is intended to imitate the ovipositing caddis as it flutters on the surface of the water. The wings should be spread to over 90 degrees wide and lifted off the shank a bit more than the traditional caddis. The broadly spread wing is intended to immitate the opened wings of the natural as it hovers over the surface, as well as the natural that becomes trapped in the sruface film.

The conditions. When caddis are encounterd in swarms or ovipositing they tend to seek out the calmer areas of the river and touch down lightly on the surface dipping the abdomen past the surface film and dropping their eggs. This is when they are very vulnerable to the trout. The caddis hover, sometimes for several seconds in the same spot dipping repeatedly, thus making them sitting ducks, or more correctly sitting bugs, for trout. This can tend to make the trout a bit wreckless in their feeding. Occasionally the caddis will become trapped in the surface and be carried downstream, this is also a great feeding opportunity for the trout.

The fish I recently encountered at Hot creek would take up one of three positions. 1-on the current seams of eddies, 2-at the tailouts of pools and eddies, 3-the heads of pools. Each was looking for the same food but in a slightly different scenario.

To fish it. All three of the afore mentioned feeding positions are ripe for this pattern, but the eddies are where this pattern is most effective. The majority of ovipositing occurs where the caddis is least likely to be carried away by the current. Apply a small amount of liquid floatant to the hackle and wings of the fly, this will make it float very high on the surface while letting the rear of the abdomen "dip" slightly into the surface. By high-sticking, much like you would a nymph, the fly can be danced across the surface just like the naturals. The strikes are viscious and deep, so even if it's not required use a barbless hook. Many of the fish I caught recently with this technique had the hook well into the back of the mouth. Very few of these fish would refuse this technique once they made a move to the fly.
The fish feeding in the tailouts were sitting where they could catch the caddis that had just become trapped in the surface. For these I would dance the fly on the surface a few feet ahead of them and then lower the rod tip allowing the fly to become "trapped" and drift into the feeding lane. I had a refusal rate of maybe 20% with these fish, but the takes were still very deep.
The fish at the heads of the pools were feeding mostly on caddis that were "touching down" on the surface and taking only the occassional "drifter". This made them more difficult because the fly had to be held precisely at the surface and danced without getting caught in the current. This is however where the larger fish were feeding and well worth the effort. The wind can be a great help here if you can postion yourself so that it carries your leader and fly over a feeding fish. I actually had one good sized fish jump out of the water and try to grab my fly before it even hit the surface. The wind had held it over the surface, with a rising and falling motion for several seconds. The eager 14" rainbow missed the fly on that attempt but got it immediately after when I touched it to the surface.

This may not be a common occurance but it is sure exciting when it happens. I intend to tie these up in several color patterns and keep them in my vest for the future.

Is it possible for you for e-mail some photos of this fly to me?

andromedam31@prodigy.net

Thanks,
JC

I apolagize once again. I don't know why this post came up as being authored by a guest.

I am still trying to figure out how to get these blasted pictures posted.

JW

_________________
If you believe "I fish, therefore I am", then practice catch and release. We'll all live a lot longer.

JW,
This is how I post pictures.
1.Find a picture hosting site. (I use www.myfishingpictures.com)
2.Create an account.
3.Upload pictures.
4.Click on photo to get the pic. address(It is at the bottom of the pic)
5.Copy address and then paste it into the post.
Hope this helps.

Anthony

Help!
Is there anyone out there who could shed some light on my situation with posting photos? The information I have received thus far has been helpful but I still have one problem.

All the photos I have are taken with a 5 megapixel Olympus on the highest resolution setting. When I try to upload them to a storage site, i.e. www.myfishingpictures.com I get a message that says the file exceeds the maximum limit. The one site I was able to upload them to www.mysticcolorlab.com doesn't give me a proper web address to share the photo through this forum (the address I used on another post, "Hot Creek" on Oct 7, was what I got by right clicking on the photo, no jpg).

Does anyone have an idea how I can shrink the photos in order to get them down to size? I will admit that I have limited experience in this field and don't know if I even have the proper software to do this.

Thanks in advance.

JW

_________________
If you believe "I fish, therefore I am", then practice catch and release. We'll all live a lot longer.

If you have PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro, or similar softwares, you can import the photos into the application to reduce the picture size, edit the photos, and save it as a JPEG format file. This is what I do with my digital photos before making them as attachments to e-mails to my friends. I've reduce a 5 megapixel photos taken on my Minolta Dimage 7 from a 2.1 megabyte file down to about 200 kilobytes, about 90% file size reduction. I could go down further with the softwares.

Hope this helps.

JC