Hook Size: 10
The Perfect Fly Great Gray Spotted Wing Sedge Larva is a trout fly that imitates larva stage of life of the Great Gray Spotted Wing Sedge. The Great Gray Spotted Wing Sedge is a net-spinning caddisfly. The larvae live in shed, type shelters and dangle themselves on a silk line attached to a rock to eat food caught in tiny nets they build near their shelters. This makes them easy prey for fish.
These caddisflies are some of the largest caddiflies or sedges, whichever name you
prefer, there are. They are members of the Hydropsychidae family of caddisflies. The
particular species is the Arctopsyche grandis. The females are a hook size 8 and the
males about a hook size smaller.
These caddisflies prefer fast water, or riffles and runs. They are often found in pocket
water. Some of the larger populations we have found were in the famous Madison River,
below Hebgen Lake or the Forty-mile Riffle.
These larvae are huge net-spinners. They look like little grub worms. They don’t reside in
cases. They stay in a shelter they build near their nets, and hang out on the end of a silk
line when feeding from their nets.
Presentation:
Our Perfect Fly imitation of the larva should be cast upstream, or up and across, and
allowed to drift downstream as near the bottom as possible. You fish it very similar to the
way you would fish a nymph. We have even used the high stick method of nymph fishing
with this fly.
You may want to add some weight to the tippet a few inches above the fly. You can use a
strike indicator. They will work much better if the bottom is fairly smooth, however, that is
not usually the case where these caddisflies are found. We prefer to fish without a strike
indicator.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
