RW Pupa
The RW Pupa is intended to serve as an easier-to-tie alternative to Gary LaFontaine’s Deep Sparkle Pupa, which itself is a highly effective fly for California’s caddis-filled streams. The RW Pupa is not so much a new pattern as it is a combination of two different dubbing methods. The first is Gary LaFontaine’s “touch dubbing” technique for the abdomen, and the second is Gary Borger’s “long fiber” dubbing procedure for the thorax. The touch-dubbed abdomen allows the fly to retain tiny bubbles as it sinks, and the long-fibered thorax gives motion to the fly and represents the pupa’s sheath before emergence. A collar of Hungarian partridge hackle provides both addition motion and a semblance of legs.
The RW Pupa can be tied in any combinations of colors to match the natural insects. A light brown abdomen and dark brown thorax seem to work best for me, with a combination of bright green and dark brown coming in second. Whatever the variation, the pattern has proven productive on both sides of the Sierra and on waters that range from the Upper Sacramento to the Owens River.
I fish this fly under an indicator, drifting it through runs and pockets, taking care to adjust the indicator up or down to keep the fly on the bottom of the stream. It has also proved sucessful early season at lakes, where I fish it, again with an indicator, in the moving water at the mouths of tributaries.
When fishing a lake, try different depths until you begin to get strikes, I’ve gone as deep as nine feet between the fly and the indicator. If you feel you are not getting deep enough, add a very small split-shot 12 to 18 inches above the fly.
I use a 9-foot, 5x leader for most of the water I fish.