general information
Caddisfly
The caddisfly larvae and caddisfly grow, molt and constantly adjust the tube house, increasing its capacity. Having “sheathed” its house, the shitik crawls along the bottom, carrying it on itself and sticking out only its head and chest with three (some with two) tenacious legs.
In case of danger, the caddis fly crawls away into its fortress and closes the entrance with its strong head. There is no need for the caddisfly to come up to the surface to breathe, since oxygen dissolved in water penetrates the blood of the larva through the delicate covering of the abdomen. In addition, many caddisfly larvae living in houses also have tracheal gills, small bushy outgrowths on the abdomen.
For ballast, so as not to float up, caddis flies weigh down their houses with pebbles, even the shells of tiny mollusks, empty or together with a live snail.
There are also types of caddisflies, the larvae of which prefer to be not at the bottom, but near the surface of the water. Their shelters are lighter than water, as they are woven from pieces of green grass containing a lot of air.
Caddisflies feed mainly on the green pulp of aquatic plants, so you need to look for them among the grass. But there are also predators among caddis flies. Such caddis flies cannot be called shitites, because they do not weave themselves with a cobweb cover, do not stand and “lined” their houses, but lead a very active lifestyle. These caddis flies use the thinnest thread to cling to something at the bottom and stay in the current, and they also set up special catching nets from their cobweb threads. The nets, which look like funnels, have a wide hole against the current and are attached motionless to aquatic plants, stones and other underwater objects. Such caddisflies feed on the larvae of mosquitoes, mayflies and even small crustaceans, gnawing them with strong jaws. These caddis flies are not usually used for fishing. They are quite difficult to find and preserve. But you can easily collect caddis flies in houses in the summer directly with your hands. Their shelters are clearly visible in clear water. And by pulling a bunch of aquatic vegetation ashore and carefully examining it (the larvae have real “camouflage”, since the houses are built from the material that is nearby), you can also detect caddis flies and collect them for fishing. By lightly pressing on the walls of the caddis house, you can carefully pull it out of the house without damaging the larva.
Shitik - all-season bait
Along with worms, bloodworms and maggots, shitiki are a catchable all-season bait. It’s not difficult to stock up on them, and you can use them for fishing with any type of equipment.
Shitiki are the larvae of caddisfly butterflies. They mainly live in tubular housings, which are “sewn” in clean, running or standing water from all kinds of “available” materials. They can be found in streams with a sandy bottom, rocky rivers and their bays, constantly flooded ditches, in the coastal waters of clean lakes and other places.
The larva is two to two and a half centimeters long and has a different color - from white to dark green. The houses in which caddis flies live have a fabric frame made of adhesive threads, into which plant and mineral particles are then woven, tightly glued together with a special substance secreted by the larva.
Shitiki intersperse grains of sand, pieces of shells, reeds, plant stems, fallen leaves and other material into the frame of the houses. It is curious that the color of the cases matches the coloring of the caddisfly habitat, thus camouflaging the larvae for camouflage purposes. Shitiki in running water are always lighter than in stagnant water.
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I know only one river with a very fast current, in which shitiks do not live in houses, sticking to the bases of stones pressed to the ground. Moreover, they coexist with other living creatures, including leeches, goose, etc.
In fishing, this superbait is as old as the world, but today’s desire to minimize organizational hassle has undeservedly relegated caddisflies to the background. The bet is often placed on baits that can be purchased in fishing stores. As a result, anglers deprive themselves of the opportunity to get bait that works flawlessly all year round, including winter.
Moreover, on various reservoirs and watercourses when catching a wide variety of fish. The statement that shitik is a purely spring bait is fundamentally wrong. The relevance of its use in summer and autumn is even higher, because it is not easy to seduce fish that do not feel a lack of food. And shitika can be called a kind of delicacy, since fish do not ignore it even when, due to various circumstances, they look coldly at other baits.
On one of the lakes, for a long time I could not find a place near my favorite spot for catching shit, until chance intervened. In a nearby hollow, flooded with water, I accidentally noticed moving cones of leaves. Having looked at them, I realized that they were shitiki. As a result, in a few minutes I collected enough larvae for fishing. Moreover, it couldn’t have come at a better time, because it was the caddis flies that became the bait on that fishing trip, ensuring a good catch.
Collection and storage of shitiks
The above example is illustrative, but still an exception to the rule. You should prepare for fishing for shichits in advance, or at least get ready for it, assuming the place and time for collecting the larvae. There are rivers, following which I am not overly burdened by this question, knowing that I will find shitiks under every stone lying under my feet.
Therefore, upon arrival, I spend no more than ten minutes on this procedure. I pulled out a couple of stones, collected several dozen shitiks from them, placed them in a jar of water and you can catch them. Finished, dialed again. But this doesn't always happen. Still, most often, collecting shitiks is more labor-intensive and requires additional time to be allocated for this procedure. Therefore, it is better to collect them in the evening, on the eve of fishing.
Determining the optimal place for collecting caddisflies can only be done experimentally. Having found a suitable stream, rivulet or other potential habitat of the Shitiks, I carefully study the bottom. If it is rocky, I begin to methodically turn over large stones. It is on them that you can most often find caddisflies, which live in large numbers in whole colonies. Removing stuck stockings from a stone is not difficult.
In addition to stones, large snags, remains of wooden piles, and other submerged elements and piles deserve attention. The larvae can also be easily removed from them by hand. In addition, you can use the same landing net to pull a collection of small brushwood to the shore and find the desired tubes among it. And sometimes it’s enough to stand in running water, collecting the houses that are being driven by the current along the bottom into prepared containers. In general, in this simple matter the only important things are observation, a certain skill, and a wading suit or boots.
As I mentioned above, shitiks are a delicate bait; they do not live long on a hook; they can withstand a maximum of a couple of recasts and no more than one or two bites. Unless bleak and small roach during periods of active feeding are able to be flattered by larvae that have lost their marketable appearance.
I practice replacing the bait after two or three casts of the float rig and after each pull of the feeder rig. Taking this into account, I prepare shitiks for future use. I store them in 0.5-1 liter jars, periodically changing the water during fishing. This is especially true on hot days. In warm, oxygen-poor water, the already sedentary larvae begin to turn black and fall asleep.
I take the remaining shitiks home with me only if I plan to go fishing in the coming days. In this case, I try to collect more “native” water for the shities from the reservoir and store them in the refrigerator. There is no point in keeping them longer; in a couple of days at most they will die anyway.
I know that fishermen I know successfully store shitiks in the refrigerator for several weeks, first laying them on a damp linen rag in one layer and covering them again with a damp rag. The rags are moistened daily. However, in my opinion, this is overkill; shitik is more of a one-time larva.
And at the end of the subsection, one interesting observation from my practice. I noticed that shitik and shitik are different. And the point here is not the size of the larvae. Fish prefer caddisflies from “their” river or lake, or at least from the same area. The bite on imported larvae from “alien” waters is worse.
Shitik fishing
Shitiki are bait suitable for successful use on any type of equipment. In fact, this is a universal bait, since not only peaceful fish, such as roach, silver bream, crucian carp, and bream, will bite on them. Chub, ide, rudd, trout, grayling and even perch enjoy caddis flies.
Moreover, they eat them greedily, trying to swallow them whole. Sometimes even small-sized fish confidently grab large shitfish. But the larvae, especially the whitish ones, are even more attractive to large underwater inhabitants, which rarely bite on common baits such as maggots and bloodworms, not to mention plant baits. I take these observations into account when arranging gear.
Whatever the type of equipment, there are two elements that I pay attention to when keeping in mind the shitik. The first is the hook. It is necessary that it be made of thin but strong wire, have a sharp tip and a suitable, if we can say universal, shape. I select the hook size based, first of all, on the size of the larva. It is usually in the range of #10-16. Such a hook minimally injures the larva, leaving it alive.
The second element is the leader line. I select it with more durable characteristics than I use when fishing with other baits. It's all about the increasing chances of catching a big fish. In a current, it is problematic to bring out a heavy specimen with a leash 0.1-0.12 mm thick, and even with a low breaking load. So I consider a strong fishing line with a minimum diameter of 0.13-0.14 mm to be the most optimal solution, be it a feeder, picker, match or bolognese.
Given the specificity of the larva, its baiting on a hook is preceded by the stage of removal from the house. This procedure is not complicated, but has its own nuances. Shitiki are easily removed from the tubular covers of the rocky surface if you lightly press the tapering, almost closed part of the house with two fingers. In this case, the larva sticks out its head, allowing it to be grabbed with its fingers and pulled.
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It is much easier to pull shities out of plant houses. As a rule, the latter are easily “disassembled” with fingers at the junctions of “tiers” or twists without damaging their inhabitants.
I bait the larva by carefully inserting the sting under the head, but without bringing it out. If I plan to serve two larvae to the fish, I can experiment with the first one in terms of piercing it with a hook, but I put on the second one only in the described way.
After an unsuccessful bite, scraps of larvae usually remain on the hook, unattractive to fish. When using a fishing rod, this is not critical, because replacing bait is a matter of seconds. Moreover, you can either completely change the bait to a fresh one, or leave the remains of the first one on the hook, supplementing them with fresh ones. Pisces will not be wary of this option.
Float guiding on the river is most effective to carry out along the coastal grass, since it is the coastal water area that is the typical habitat of shitiks and the fish know this well. In cases where the strip of grass is too narrow, I practice a long raft of the float, minimizing the sounds of my presence on the shore so as not to frighten the fish.
The situation is somewhat more complicated with a feeder, because fishing most often takes place at an impressive distance from the shore with feeding in the casting sector. Of course, if the fish are active and catch well, there are no problems; you can use one or two fish on the hook and fish with them. However, this happens less often than we would like.
Therefore, when fish are trying to pick shitika, and the percentage of idle bites is high, I prefer combined baits. Sandwiches made from scutes with maggots, bloodworms or small worms have worked especially well. I combined caddis flies with artificial bait such as polystyrene foam with some success. I don’t see any point in experimenting with natural baits, because they are also vulnerable and don’t hold the hook very tightly.
Caddisfly catch
Caddis flies are collected in shallow water and in windows of underwater vegetation. Here, sometimes, you can collect several dozen specimens from a small underwater meadow. To catch larvae, use a net with a small mesh. Often, when you pull a snag out from under the water, you can find several larvae on it. But the easiest way is to take a stick with a flyer at the end and, immersing it in seaweed, wrap it around the stick. And then on the shore you can calmly select the required number of larvae from the underwater “wilds”. Experienced fishermen know another, no less productive way of luring caddis flies. You need to make a kind of broom from the branches of coastal vegetation. And, sprinkle it with flour, immerse it in water for about a day. And after this time, the broom is taken out and a rich harvest of larvae is selected from it.
As practice shows, the best caddis flies for fishing are large, dark greenish, even olive-colored. But we should not forget that this catchable bait, once caught, dies very quickly if suitable conditions are not created for it.
Caddisfly storage
Storing caddis flies
If you need to store caddis flies for 2-3 days, they are stored in a wet cloth, or in a plastic box, between two soaked strips of foam rubber. The fact is that the caddisfly that leaves the house dies quite quickly. Therefore, for long-term storage, the larvae need to be laid in a row on a wet cloth and wrapped tightly on both sides, so that the caddisfly does not have the opportunity to leave the house. In this form, in a cool place, the larvae live for a month. When fishing, often, to give the caddisfly greater mobility, it is stored directly in a rag bag lowered into the water.
Having laid out the caddisflies collected in the “houses” on a plastic bag in one layer so that the larvae do not touch each other (otherwise they may be damaged when thawing), you need to cover them with a second bag and put them in the freezer of the refrigerator. If you place the larvae carefully, in even rows, then on the eve of fishing it is enough to cut off the required number of caddis flies with scissors and put them in the box in the inner pocket. During their journey to the pond, the caddis flies will thaw and be ready to be hooked.
Before attaching it to the hook, the larva is removed from its improvised shell, and if this is difficult to do, they prick it with a pin from the back, or simply break the house.
Fishing with caddis larva
There are no special secrets when fishing for caddis flies. Line diameter - 0.18-0.2 mm; hook - No. 4-5; the float is small in size, not too bright. It is advisable to use a 0.15 mm leash. This is due to the fact that when fishing with a retrieve, hooks are inevitable, so you have to sacrifice your hook from time to time. It is not recommended to use “braid”; when pulling the tackle against the current, it twists, which leads to the formation of “beards” that are difficult to untangle.
The bites, as usually happens when fishing in the current, are decisive. The float either quickly moves to the side or plunges sharply. It’s worth waiting a couple of seconds for the fish to swallow the bait deeper, and then hook. Carry out fishing in a forced mode. The fish is trying to escape into the coastal thickets, and if you allow it, it will almost certainly break away. To prevent such a turn of events, try to keep the rod perpendicular to the bank and bring the prey closer to the center of the river. The strength of the resisting fish is combined with the strength of the current, and the result is even more pleasure.
Tackle
The gear for catching caddis flies can be the most ordinary float rod. But it is much more convenient to use a one-handed spinning rod of medium length (2.5-2.7 m), equipped with a spinning reel. The fact is that the banks of small rivers and streams, where fishing usually takes place, are usually replete with bushes. Using a long rod is inconvenient and sometimes impossible. The inertia-free reel makes it possible to release the bait far enough, which allows you to fish long areas without leaving the spot. There is no other way to catch large fish in a river where the average depth ranges from half a meter to a meter. Thanks to the shallow depth and clear water, the fish notice the angler even before he has time to cast the fishing rod. Large individuals immediately retreat downstream. Maybe this is why many fishermen believe that serious people have absolutely nothing to do on the banks of small rivers. Having tried fishing in such places a couple of times and having caught a dozen roach and perch, such specialists never return here again. Meanwhile, a river that is inconspicuous at first glance can present us with trophies that we can only dream of on a big river.
Swim fishing with a ball-shaped float is effective for catching trophies in the upper layers of reservoirs. The method has several advantages. The transparent ball-shaped float does not scare away the fish, and the bait is presented very naturally. The method is ideal for sport fishing on riffles.
Methods for planting caddis flies
Methods for attaching a caddis fly
There are two ways to attach a caddis fly to a hook. In the first case, the larva is pierced through with a hook under the head, similar to how bloodworms are placed on the hook of a jig during winter fishing. In the second, the hook is hidden completely in the body of the larvae, this is how a dung worm is usually attached in the summer. The first method is preferable for active biting, the second for sluggish biting.
Using bait
Using bait often does harm instead of good. A strong current washes away the food and carries it far down, and the fish naturally follows. To attract fish, you can crush several houses with larvae and throw them into the water. Usually this is enough. The operation can be repeated after 10-15 minutes.
Finding a place to fish for caddis flies
You should look for fish in relatively calm water, but close to the main stream. Small places where the current is quite strong, and deep pools in which there is little food are unpromising. As mentioned above, the fish feeds very actively, but the energy spent during spawning has not yet been restored. Therefore, roach, perch, and chub stand in shelters and from there rush at prey passing by. The best places are exits from rifts, pitfalls, snags, and river turns with a reverse flow. It is more correct to move downstream and, having discovered a promising place, throw the bait into the water and let the current float it to this place. If after two or three casts there is no bite, move on. Try to follow the basic rules of camouflage. You don’t need to crawl on your bellies and hang branches on your head, but you shouldn’t run along the shore waving a fishing rod either.
After you have managed to catch several fish in the same place, change the fishing location. The big fish have already left here anyway, and the small fish are not what we go fishing for. If there are several good places at a short distance from each other, it is worth fishing them in turn. We start from the top one, fish for 15-20 minutes, move on to the next one, etc. It makes sense to stay longer only if the bite is active and the size of the prey suits you. Having fished at the very bottom, we return back, but not along the shore, but at some distance from the water, so as not to scare the fish. All this disguise may seem funny to some, but without it you can hardly count on luck.
Fishing in winter
The value of bait increases several times in winter. Although production becomes more difficult. But by using some tricks, you will always have fresh material for fishing. The larvae of caddis flies and many semi-aquatic insects overwinter at a depth of 2-3 meters. With the help of special traps, it will not be difficult to obtain them constantly.
Shitik. One of the best spring baits for catching large whitefish
Spring. There is no better time of year. Rejoicing in the warm sun, nature comes to life, coastal river vegetation emerges with all its might, in which all kinds of microorganisms and larvae develop. They are the main food for fish, which during this period greedily feeds almost under their very feet. Moreover, it is not only small roach and dace that are not afraid of shallow depths - bream, ide, and chub also come to a half-meter depth for a delicacy.
One of these delicacies that is especially popular among fish is the caddis fly larva, popularly known as shitik. In the spring, shitik very often becomes the “key” to large and cautious fish, allowing you to increase your catch by an order of magnitude. The most important thing is that the caddisfly has excellent selective properties - small fish ignore it in most cases, while large fish bite on shitika always and everywhere.
There are a great many varieties of caddis flies. The larvae vary in size and color. According to my observations, the fish that get the most attention are the larvae that live in streams and rivers under stones and build their houses from small pebbles. Such shitiki are large in size and yellowish-cream in color, which attracts large fish from afar.
Production
As mentioned above, a massive emergence of caddis flies is observed along with the first sustained warmth in spring. As a rule, attempts to harvest caddisfly after emergence end in failure - the fisherman finds only empty houses and a small number of usable larvae. Therefore, you should take care of catching caddis flies in advance. And given the fact that caddisfly is stored perfectly, it can be prepared in large quantities for future use and used as needed.
You can start searching for caddisflies from the beginning of March. In some cases, streams are still frozen at this time, but there are also non-freezing areas. Most caddisfly larvae live attached to the underside of large rocks. You should pay attention that the bottom at the extraction site is sandy - caddisflies do not live on stones immersed in silt.
Having put on a wading suit, the angler moves up the stream, turns over stones and collects caddisfly larvae on their undersides. You should pay attention not only to stones - shitika colonies live well on a variety of human waste - flooded plastic and metal objects, old tires, etc.
So, we got the required amount of shitika. Now another question arises - how to keep it alive for a long time.
Storage
Many fishermen think that it is impossible to keep shitik alive, and therefore do not stock it for future use. You often hear conversations like this: “Well, it lives in water... I try to store it in water, it turns sour and the shitik doesn’t last even a day...”. And in response to the assertion that shitik is perfectly stored for a month, they only grin incredulously and twirl their finger at their temple. And, meanwhile, storing a shitik is no more difficult than storing the same worm! You just need to follow a few simple rules.
First of all, no water! It doesn’t matter that shitik lives in water - it’s an absolute evil for storage! The water instantly turns sour and the shitik dies without even surviving a day. The extracted shitik is carefully poured into a colander or fine sieve to sift the bait and thoroughly washed in clean water to remove debris, dirt, silt and sand.
After this, it is left on the same sieve for some time in order to get rid of excess water. In parallel with this, a storage container is prepared - a wide and shallow vessel. The caddisfly in it should lie in one or two layers; it is extremely undesirable to store it in narrow and tall containers, like a glass jar.
Place a damp (but not wet!) rag on the bottom of the prepared container and carefully scatter the shitika in a thin layer. All! We send our “terrarium” to a cool place - a basement, a balcony (if it’s not hot outside), a refrigerator. Periodically, once every three to four days, we take out our container, pour the shitika onto a sieve and rinse it, and wet the rag.
Catching
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As noted above, shitik is very often the key to capricious spring fish. Shitika is eaten with great appetite by all kinds of white fish of medium and large sizes. Therefore, if you are purposefully hunting for large chub and ide, caddis should certainly be present on the fish menu. Moreover, there were trips when the fish completely refused to bite on anything other than shitik.
In my practice, there have been two periods of spring caddisfly fishing, with fundamentally different approaches, gear and fishing tactics. The first period begins with the melting of ice and lasts until about mid-April - at this time the fish stays away from the shore and is reluctant to come within the distance of a fishing rod.
It is more convenient to catch it either in a retrieve with a long cast and a long release of the float, or with a feeder. When searching for fish, you should pay attention to places with complex currents - the boundaries of holes and main streams, areas with flooded trees, snags, sand spits that extend a considerable distance from the shore. Promising places are also all kinds of creeks and bays bordering the main current. In such places, food, carried by the current, accumulates, and fish rest there, rising upstream to the spawning grounds.
The main gear used for fishing during this period is a float rod and a feeder. There are no design features in the float gear that would make it stand out. When fishing with long-distance casting, you should use heavy floats, about 3-5 grams. Fishing very often takes place far from the shore, so while holding a light float, the sinker will rise to the upper layers of the water, which is categorically undesirable.
Early spring feeder fishing has several limitations that fundamentally distinguish it from summer fishing. In early spring, complementary feeding practically does not work, so it is better to leave large volumes of bait and various flavoring additives for the summer. In the spring, the fishing location is primary, and very often a weight is used instead of a feeder and in a similar way, like a running bottom, all promising places are fished.
The second period begins when the young coastal grass begins to grow with all its might. Insects become active and the fish approach the shore without fear, feeding almost at the very feet. As a rule, this period coincides with the spawning period for most fish (roach, silver bream, dace), for which the coastal grass is also a spawning ground, so there is no need for long casting.
Since in most cases the depth of coastal vegetation does not reach even a meter, it is preferable to release the float far away along the shore - up to 25-30 meters. At this distance, the fish is not afraid of the angler and boldly takes the bait. At this time, the feeder gear gives up - there is no point in fishing “under your feet” with a heavy feeder; with a fishing rod, fishing is much more productive.
Since fishing along the grass most often occurs at shallow depths, the use of large and heavy floats is unjustified. Light, 1.5-2.5 gram floats of the classic shape (barrel, drop, inverted drop) should be used. Such bites convey bites much better to cautious fish, and the fish does not feel the resistance of a heavy sinker during a bite.
Spring has already entered into its rightful rights, freeing the reservoirs from ice and breathing hope into the hearts of fishermen who have been tired of a good bite. If you are going to the river, don’t be lazy, pick up a jar of shitik. The results can be impressive!
