THE MUSTARD CADDIS

I have no idea who invented the original Mustard Caddis, but recall seeing this fly featuring in yellowfish write-ups in the early 90s already. It is so effective that Horst Filter, one of the pioneers of smallscale and largescale yellowfish in South Africa, continued fishing this fly for yellowfish across South Africa and fine-tuned it for ‘his’ rivers in the Lüneburg area. Horst loves catching small- and largescale yellowfish, as well as chiselmouth species that occur in the Pongola and Assegaai Rivers and their tributaries, and one of his favourite flies to catch all of these fishes in a session with is his personalised version of the famous Mustard Caddis.

Horst and his Mustard Caddis

Garth Wellman and I recently visited Horst and while he guided us to catch some amazing yellowfish, he also showed us just how deadly his version of the Mustard Caddis is for his backyard yellows. Firstly, he insists on using the right colour ‘yellow’ chenille, a custom dyed mustardy yellow that he’s got at industrial scale (probably more than a kilometer of the stuff and I’m not joking!). Then, Horst insists on using an iridescent yellow cellophane material for the back of the fly, something that he randomly found at a local flower shop. In his words: “This fly works!”; and man does it work!

Here is a quick step-by-step for Horst’s Mustard Caddis (oh, and good luck finding that iridescent yellow cellophane btw!):

Materials

Horst uses a specific, custom dyed chenille for his version of the Mustard Caddis; here he shows off his industrial roll of chenille, the perfect colour he says, not too yellow and not too orange, something in-between.

While Horst generally uses scud hooks for this fly and insists on the right colour chenille and cellophane, he isn’t too picky about bead colour though and uses a variety of hot orange, gold and gunmetal black beads for his caddis larvae flies.

I chose the Hanak H 35 XH #12 hook for this fly because it is a sturdy hook that will not bend open easily under the pressure of a biggish yellowfish tearing off line on that first powerful run that they are so well known for.

Tying sequence

Step 1: I selected a 3 mm gunmetal black tungsten bead for this fly;

Step 2: Tie in copper wire down the length of the hook shank (to create a relatively even layer of thread) and also tie in a slither of the iridescent yellow cellophane at the bend of the hook (I used Gordon Griffith’s Sheer 14/0 black thread here);

Step 3: Tie in a piece of the mustard-coloured chenille at the bend of the hook;

Step 4: Wrap the chenille forward to form the abdomen of the fly and tie off about 2 mm behind the bead (leaving space for the thorax);

Step 5: Fold the cellophane slither over the abdomen to form the back of the fly;

Step 6: Wrap the copper wire towards the bead to create the abdominal segments of the caddis larva and to secure the cellophane back;

Step 7: Tie in a few strands of peacock herl behind the bead;

Step 8: Twist the peacock herl into a noodle and wrap forward and right up against the bead to form the thorax of the fly;

Step 9: Tie off and varnish the knot of the thread.

Results

Horst with a beautiful chiselmouth that he caught on his customised Mustard Caddis, a deadly pattern for yellowfishes when fished deep and with slow retrieves along the bottom of rivers.