Description
When it’s time to get serious about catching trout and grayling, you need a fly that imitates the most important part of the caddis fly life cycle: the pupa. This stage is the final, crucial step before the caddis fly emerges as a winged adult, and it’s a phase that often drives fish into a feeding frenzy.
The caddis pupa imitation mimics the insect as it rises from the riverbed to the water's surface. It is an active, wriggling meal, and fish often key in on these helpless, buoyant insects while ignoring everything else.
The Dual-Fly Technique: Pupae rise through the entire water column before hatching. To maximize your chances, try the "Anchor fly" technique by using a heavier pupa or emerger to get your cast down to the right depth, followed by a lighter imitation. This versatile pattern can be fished as a dropper under a dry fly, dead-drifted with a strike indicator, or swung across the current to imitate the rising motion of the natural insect. It is a universal pattern that works in almost any river where caddis are present.
The Micro-Technical Precision – J:son Caddis Pupa 5 Olive Brown (#20) The J:son Caddis Pupa 5 in Olive Brown is our smallest and most technical caddis pupa, tied on a size #20 hook. This micro-imitation is specifically engineered for those rare and difficult moments when fish are locked onto the tiniest nattsländearter, often seen during late-season hatches or in crystal-clear limestone streams. The olive-brown tone provides a subtle, organic profile that mimics a wide variety of micro-caddis species with extreme accuracy.
We know that threading a size #20 fly can be a challenge, which is why we’ve designed this pattern with a proportionally larger hook eye to make rigging easy, even when using thin tippets. Despite its tiny size, it carries all of J:son’s hallmark features: an anatomically correct, segmented body and a realistic translucency that captures the essence of a living insect. When the fish are ignoring everything else, this #20 Olive Brown Pupa is often the only way to turn a frustrating day into a success.