Wow!!!The Hydropsyche Larva, a free-living, or net-spinning caddis. I have seen these things all over the west, and in plentiful numbers, especially here on the East slopes of the Cascades. Here is a pic from the web:
View attachment 51258
And then here are some pics I have taken out with my kids trying to introduce them to aquatic entomology:
View attachment 51261
I think this one is actually Rhyacophila
View attachment 51262
And then in this one if you scan around the petri dish there looks to be a mixture of Hydropsyche and Rhyacophila along with a bunch of different mayflies and stoneflies and some other stuff.
View attachment 51266
I came up with a super simple fly a long time ago that worked fine for both the Hydropsyche and Rhyacophila...boring to tie, but worked fine. And then I just kind of stopped fishing them, and didn't replace it with another pattern...I just kind of stopped fishing these free living caddis Larva. Which is really dumb with the prevalence of these insects in the majority of the rivers that I fish. This winter I decided that was going to change. I needed to come up with a pattern for this insect that I was stoked to fish. I do like a little realism in my flies, but I am also trying to not make them a pain in the rear to tie. And of course I am looking for durability.
After a dozen or so attempts that i wasnt happy with for one reason or another, I finally was able to combine parts of each of those flies to come up with this:
View attachment 51269
View attachment 51270
View attachment 51271
View attachment 51272
Now I'm just waiting for caddis season!