When, on a spring or summer afternoon, you see female caddis return to the water to bob up and down and dive beneath the surface, you are witness to the egg-laying cycle. Tie on Wilcox’s Egg Laying Caddis. With its sloping hook and suggestive egg sack, the pattern gives the illusion of motion that brings trout to the top.

Use this pattern on a long leader on slow-moving flat water. To raise the excitement level, knot a short section of leader to the bend of the hook, employing an unweighted mayfly nymph or emerger as a dropper. In faster currents, try skittering the fly on the surface.

Tie Wilcox’s Egg Laying Caddis with rust colored thread on a No. 12-18 curved dry-fly hook. For the tail, use white CDC, calf tail or a synthetic. Wrap the body with olive dubbing, one strand of green Krystal Flash and a dry-fly hackle. Tie in a spray of elk hair then wrap a thorax of brown dry-fly hackle and pull the elk hair forward to tie down at the head.