First Fish On The Fly - G & H Sedge

By David Hutton
Feb 12 2022

A while back, Matt O'neal, at Savage Flies, related the story of how he first got into fishing with the fly.
It was 1983. He was a young lad in Georgia, and he saw a man fly fishing a local stream. The man wore classic hip waders, and an old-style fishing hat.

Something like this....

The scene mesmerized Matt, and he bargained with is dad to get a fly rod. This started him on the road he travels today. 

To hear Matt tell the story and talk about the first fly with which he caught a trout, check here:

Savage Flies - Matt Gets His Start

My Own Story
Well, Matt's tale made me think of my own first fish on the fly. It was a happy accident for me; I didn't bargain or organize my way into the World of the Fairy Stick.

Instead, I stumbled into it.

But that first fly-caught fish seems to be a pivotal moment for all fly anglers, and I'm no exception. 

Never a Fly Fisher

I started fishing when I was around 6 years old. Sea fishing, fresh water, north-south-east-west... I've traveled, and I've done a lot of it over the years.
But in all that time. I never tried fly fishing. 

Both my dad and, later, my step-father,... each were capable fly fishers, but they never did invest that time with me.
Before you think they were bad fathers, let me stop you: they were not.
We did every other kind of outdoors thing together.

Camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, shooting, you name it.
For example, I was trained by my father to shoot a gun when I was 5... if I said that anywhere but here, people would lose their minds.
It's just that fly fishing never entered the picture.

My biological father passed away when I was 12, and all his stuff was adopted, and appreciated, by my step father when my mom re-married.

I was far from home at that time, so he was next in line to use it.

In time, my step dad got old, too, and moved to a senior's apartment complex. By then, Life had brought us all back together, and the hoard of goodies from TWO old-school outdoorsmen came to me.
It was treasure trove! 

The First Fly
I was like a kid in a candy shop,... a little overwhelmed and clueless about some of it, but feeling blessed.
And there, among all this bounty, I found a small metal fly box.

The Fly Box

What Remains

Inside, was an assortment of tattered, age-worn flies. Most of them had lost their dressing, and they held no significance - little more than fuzzy hooks. So I took them out.

What you see here is what remains.

And although I knew these things were intended to catch fish, I could tell you no more than that.

But among the remnants, I spotted a fly that stood out - mostly because it had some little antennas on it. 

That’s all I knew at the time... it appeared to be intact, it was strange looking, and it had antennae.

And antennae are friggin cool. 

More about it in a minute.

What to DO?
Here I was, the proud owner of a vintage fly box and some flies... and I had no experience at all with fly fishing.
Moreover I had no fly fishing gear.

I was in a pickle!

But, what I did have was a lot of fishing equipment, and lo and behold, I had a pond at my disposal!
My neighbors, Mark and Joanne (RIP) Goodson, had given me free run of their pond, and an open invitation to fish there any time. And that pond had fish in it….

So, I did what you might expect in that situation:

I improvised!

Ok, I had no fly rod..., but I had a collection of telescoping crappie poles.
Nowadays we have the Cult of Tenkara and their highfalutin' little poles-without-reels.
But, I had never heard of that, back then.
What I had was some line, and some crappie poles.
So, I did what any county boy would do - the line was tied to one of my "redneck tenkara rods," the weird little fly was tied on the end of that.... and I whipped it out into the water as best I could.

Which is to say, pretty poorly. But, it got out far enough... and a fish took it with a vengeance! 
As you might expect, a fat bluegill was my reward.
Despite all the odds stacked against me, I had caught my first fish on a fly... a bluegill.

The Fly
On that fateful day, all I knew was that a bluegill greedily snatched my fly from the pond's surface.
I didn't know why it wanted to, and I couldn't even imagine what the fly was; it was just an odd little thing, with antennae. 
It was only much later that I learned it was a, "G&H Sedge."

 

G & H Sedge, aka, "Goddard Caddis"

The Real Thing



My G & H Sedge

This pattern is a fiddly deer hair and hackle creation, intended to mimic a caddis fly.
Okay, right.... a what? A caddis fly?
I had no idea what a caddis fly was, and even today, I aint all that sure.

I don't even know who tied my sedge...someone in the past is all I know.

But it worked, and this led me to research...

The G & H Sedge
This pattern was developed as a stillwater trout pattern in the early 1960's, give or take, by a couple of Englishmen, John Goddard and his friend, Clive Hendry. 

They conceived it to be tied of spun deer hair, then to be trimmed into a caddis shape. 

Especially desired was the thick deer body hair, because it is very buoyant.

According to one report, they told their friend, Andre Puyans, about it, and he took it under his wing. 

In Britain, the fly came to be known as the, "G&H Sedge."
It had an olive seal's fur belly and the hackle was trimmed on top.
Andre had a fly shop near San Jose, CA, from which he introduced the fly to Sierra fishermen in the West, as the "Goddard Caddis"...and this name became the more popular of the two.

Because of the buoyant hair construction, it floats like a cork, and it is still well regarded as a fast water pattern.

In slower waters, the fly can create a realistic wake when skated on the surface.
This is what the real caddis does - it emerges at the surface and quickly tries to swim to the bank for safety. This leaves a telltale wake that fish recognize, and "skating" it is one of the most enjoyable ways to fish it.

Most surprising to me, though, was learning that bluegill and trout eat the same things...like caddis flies. The specific species may differ, but a caddis is a caddis the world over.
Like most people, I always pictured fly fishing as specific to trout. Yet, here I was catching bluegill on a trout fly... and I've called these scrappy little fish, "Dixie Trout" ever since. 

That also rocketed the once lowly bluegill into the highest esteem… and launched my love of fly fishing, and especially the sublime art of chasing bluegill on the fly.

So, do what I did - get you some trout flies, the rod of your choice, and go find out for yourself!

And if one of those flies is a Goddard Caddis… so much the better!

 Thanks for reading and Tight Lines

David

Palmetto Fly N Fish
I hope you enjoyed this and learned something; if you did, please share it with your friends.

References

https://flyfishingthesierra.com/godcad.htm

https://globalflyfisher.com/video/goddard-caddis-4

http://opff.org/a_goddard-caddis.php

https://www.flyfishersinternational.org/Portals/0/FlyoftheMonth/PreviousIssues/2020-02_February_GoddardCaddis_sm.pdf?ver=-xYK-YxvswBW1qS_fssaUw%3D%3D

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