Nice Brook Trout Caught Skating Caddis Fly Pattern

This past weekend I got some decent footage of a nice sized brook trout (The one pictured above) taking a size 10 Goddard Caddis I was skating. While I catch less trout skating a dry fly than on a dead drift, the trout I do catch tend to be larger, more aggressive, and fight harder than those that take a dead drifted fly.

You can see the video below, and the fly is actually clearly visible.

Skip to 1:13 if you want to see the fly highlighted and the strike slowed down.

If you watch the fly in the video above, you’ll see that it’s dead drifted over the fish first, and I only trigger a strike as I’m skating the fly back to me. I like the let the fly dead drift down the current first. When the drift is completed, I’m not to eager to rip the fly up for another cast right away. Instead, I like to skate the fly back towards myself before casting. This helps cover more water using two different techniques with less casting, and reduces the likelihood of spooking the fish.

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The second half of the video shows a smaller brook trout caught on a dead drift presentation. The final clip in the video I just liked the shot so I threw the clip in there as well (and brookies are always gorgeous to look at as well).

As far as caddis patterns go, I’m quite fond of the goddard caddis due to it’s near cork-like float-ability. That being said a classic elk hair caddis often works just as well, you just can’t fish it for half the day like you can a goddard caddis fly (although it’s quite boyant when compared to other dry flies).