I started fishing this specific pattern back in 2007 and met with immediate success. Although I’ve always punted the abilities of the fly ,it’s been slow to catch on – a blessing in disguise. Unlike the mayfly hatches where you sometimes have to go through a lot of fly changes in order to find the correct stage of emergence or surface footprint , this pattern distilled the smaller Hydropsychidae caddis hatch into a single fly affair. The pattern even has the ability to turn shallow feeding fish into free risers and my biggest fish on dry, a 9lb’er, was taken while prospecting likely lies at the onset of a hatch.

Part of  the pattern success is that the fish focus a lot more on the subsurface layer ( or the final inch, as Harrop would put it) during caddis emergence, because caddis exlode hell of a fast. This pattern, the Hermanhamer, deviates from the original Klinkhamer, because the scruffy dubbing prevents the abdomen from penetrating well below the surface film ,creating a footprint somewhere between a Klinkhamer and a Parachute. There’s no pretty little extras or triggers to the pattern , which after all looks like a mess  suspended below a parachute . I guess it falls in line with Charlie Craven’s apt description of a caddis pupae, which he calls the ugliest bugs in the fly fishing world – a cross between something that smashed into your windscreen and a ball of snot.

“Charlie Craven’s apt description of a caddis pupae, which he calls the ugliest bugs in the fly fishing world – a cross between something that smashed into your windscreen and a ball of snot.”

RECIPE :

• HOOK : #14 light wire scud . Gamakatsu C12
• for smaller #16 I just tie on 2/3 of the hook shank
• THREAD : tan or yellow . Danville 70
• POST : fluoro red/ pink Antron Yarn
• found these colors the best for viz a dusk
• HACKLE : 4-5 turns Brown Saddle hackle
• SHUCK : dubbing fibres
• ABDOMEN : light yellow UV Ice Dub & light yellow SLF or bleached Seals Fur
• RIB: tying tread
• THORAX : spiky Brown Dubbing