Grannom Family

[palewatery]

Flies to fish the Grannom hatch for me usually means of a pupa pattern… for sub surface emergers, a delta pattern… for egg laying and dead adults and a green butt CDC & Elk… for everything in between. It’s always been enough to get me through the hatch.
This season, just for a bit of fun and as a tying exercise, I thought I’d have a go at tying up the life cycle. Time will tell how much of the hatch I manage to catch and how many of the flies do the business.

Grannom family


Larva.

Hook: TMC 100 #16
Weight: Square Lead Wire Small
Thread: Benecchi 12/0 Tobacco
Abdomen: Thread coloured with brown marker. Varnished once rib is wound. Red/Brown synthetic dubbing to tidy up the rib tie off.
Rib: Stripped Red Game Cock Hackle Stalk, wiped with brown marker.
Thorax: Mixed Olive & PMD Beaver
Legs: Grey Partridge fibres

Pupa

Hook: TMC 2487 #14
Weight: Small amount of flat lead sheet at bend to accentuate shape and add only a little weight
Thread: Hends Synton Khaki
Abdomen: Mixed Olive & PMD Beaver
Back & Thorax cover: Medallion Sheeting Hopper Yellow
Rib: Light Green Organza Ribbon*
Wingbuds: Stalcups Flashback Black
Thorax: Hares Ear
Antennae: Badger Guard Hairs
* I usually use a more yellow/green Organza but I’ve run out so substituted with light green, I’m not too happy with the sub, the original colour was much nicer. If I can’t replace the original more closely I’ll change to synthetic dubbing in a loop in future.
Thanks to Dave for pointing me towards the Synton thread, I really like the stuff.

Emerger (X-Caddis)

Hook: TMC 100 #18
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Olive
Shuck: Polypropylene Yarn Tan & Two strands of Midge Krystal Flash Root Beer. Trimmed to leave rough edges.
Body: Mixed Golden Olive, Lt Cahill & Callibaetis Beaver
Rib: Tying thread
Wing: Yearling Elk

Adult

Hook: TMC 100 #18
Thread: Benecchi 12/0 Dark Olive
Tail: Snowshoe Hare Dun, short curly fibres
Butt: Hends Effects Thread Green Fluo
Body: Mixed Olive & Callibaetis Beaver
Hackle: Lt Brown Dun Cock, palmered then trimmed top and bottom.
Wing: Snowshoe Hare, longer straighter fibres. Tied forward then folded back to tie down.

Egg Layer

Hook: TMC 100 #16. Hook used is one size larger than for the Adult to allow the wing to be cut shorter than the hook bend, this stops the problem with the wings folding under the hook during fishing.
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Olive
Butt: Hends Effects Thread Green Fluo
Abdomen: Olive CDC
Wings: Light Natural CDC
Thorax: Mixed synthetic Dubbing Brown/Olive

Drowned Adult

Hook: Varivas 2200BL-B #16
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Dark Brown
Abdomen: Mixed Olive & Callibaetis Beaver
Wing: Grey Partridge feather on invisible Sellotape then coated with Daves Flexament.
Thorax: Hares Ear.
Antennae: Badger Guard Hairs

Over the last while there’s been a bit of a debate on exactly how the adults lay their eggs, on the Clyde and Tweed (where I fish the hatch) I’ve continually witnessed them flop to the surface and release eggs that way. I’ve read about them dipping and diving but have not seen that myself so I’ve always used the Delta pattern for egg layers. The Adult pattern above would probably do for dippers if you impart a twitch in it every now and again and the drowned adult pattern would cover for divers as well as dead adults, should you need it to.
In the UK Grannom is the common name for Brachycentrus subnubilus, I know you have some Brachycentrus species in the US but I'm not sure what they are (Mothers Day Caddis maybe????). Hopefully some are similar to ours so this post isn't a complete waste of time for you :D :D :wtf:

Hope you like them.

Jim.

[BrkTrt]

Fine work my friend.

Thanks,


Brk Trt

[AndyBaird]

Check-out the antennae on the drowned adult! Do you make up the wings from scratch, highly imatiative stuff.

Very, VERY nice tying Jim. Looking forward to meeting you in July at IIFF.

Best,
Andy

[trout-nut]

very nice caddis patterns. just got done tying a bunch of x caddis myself. :D

[palewatery]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Andy, the wings are very simple to make up. Just some grey speckled Partridge on the sticky side of invisible sellotape from WH Smiths, you can cut to shape and use from that or strengthen them a bit more with a coat of flexament. I made up some bigger ones for later in the season to fish as diving egg layers for Sandfly Sedges I'll post that later.

Cheers again.
Jim

[Gerard]

Jim, I really feel sorry for the trout in your area! ;)

[Brett]

Wow Really great stuff, Jim! Like Gerard said, the trout in your area are in trouble now!

Brett

[garethl]

Superb as always Jim. I love caddis, and this family of grannom is exceptional! I agree with Andy, that drowned adult is superb tying! Very cool!

[palewatery]

Gerard & Brett: Hopefully it'll change soon but with the season just started and the weather horrible the Trout are beating me hands down right now :lolno: :lolno: :lolno:

Gareth: I'd tied these before I saw your Emerger pattern so it was too late to go that route instead of the X-Caddis. I know the X-Caddis works well but I'm convinced yours will too so I'll be tying some of those for other species, we get really good Sandly Sedge hatches up here so I'll tie some for them.

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

[Alpinefly]

Very Nice Work !!!!