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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:38 pm • # 1 
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 I am a little early with this one......It is explosive in the spring when the Catawba worms are falling off the willow trees. It will work during all the warm months, but in the spring it really shines.
This fly is very simple, requiring only thread / two colors of micro chenille / griz hackle / and a hook. My favorite size is # 12 and # 10 size hooks, the one I am doing here is on a size # 6 for bass. I have made them all the way down to size 14.......smaller than that and I can't seem to get them to come out right (the ole eyes are not what they used to be). Also, as in the mini-bugger, I found that palmering the hackle from the front to the back and to the front again not only keeps the fly from twisting in the water.......but with the extra hackle it floats longer before you have to dry it out. One day last spring in a  private pond......5 cast in a row landed a bass under a willow tree that had a Catawba nest up in the branches. But in the spring it seems to work even if there is no webby-nest in the tree.....go-figure. I prefer red thread on this one, if the wooley worms in you area are a different color.....then by all means "match-the-hatch" if you can. In SC they are green with a black strip down the back. I will include an older picture of several different sizes I tied a year ago......I tied them a little different back then, but the results are the same..(largest one in last picture is a size #2 streamer hook).......They work so well I felt like sharing with the forum.  Pictures follow as soon as I get them resized.......Good-Luck......Don S. in SC (tailingloop)

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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:53 am • # 2 
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My dad was a hard core, pan fishing bait fisherman.  I fondly remember every August as a kid, driving the back roads with my dad looking for chewed up Catalpa leaves.  As soon as we found a tree with holey leaves, out we go to gather catalpa worms.  My dad always swore they were the best bait there was for bluegills.  A few years ago I saw an ad on the net of a guy who was selling frozen catalpa worms.


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:34 am • # 3 
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  They are still the preferred live bait for Redbreast down here.  Some of the "silky" cocoon nest have hundreds of worms in them. In the spring you can drive along the highway and see them almost everywhere in the trees along side the road. The fish eat LOTS of them. With this fly I tried to make a good imitation that is simple to tie. I got the idea from a tie I seen on YOUTUBE.....then modified it to look like a Catawba worm and make it easier to tie. This fly can be tied in just a couple three minutes or so...........The biggest problem I have seen with this fly, the fish try to swallow it whole. Sometimes you can't get them unhooked without killing them. Whenever that happens.....Rather than kill them, I will cut the line, as far in as I can, and let the fish go. I know at least some of them will survive. If you are quick enough, and keep a tite line, you can "lip-hook" them. The Bass love this one too. I toss up to a size #6 on UL gear, and up to a size #2 on the few occasions I use a heavier rod. I hope everyone has as good a luck with this one as I have.  "PLEASE" send pictures...........Don S. in SC


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 12:52 pm • # 4 
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That will work in Al for sure...Nice work Don...


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:16 pm • # 5 
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At least up north, the catalpa worm caterpillar is a different critter than the tent caterpillar which live in large clusters within a silky "nest".  I don't know if the leaves of the Catalpa tree is the only forage that the Catalpa worm will eat, but that is where we always looked and found them.  They were more or less free roaming and did not reside in any sort of mass "nest".  The catalpa worms are a much brighter green than the tent caterpillars found in my neck of the woods.

Catalpa Sphinx


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:02 am • # 6 
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We used Catalpa worms for bluegills in southwest Georgia back in the 60's. There is a southern and northern species of the Catalpa tree that attracts the sphinx moth (the larvae are what we called "catalpa worms"). They were tough as all get out, so we sometimes turned them inside out to attract the big boys. A 1 1/2 pound 'gill was not out of the question. Tent worms are different.

Regardless, those are very nicely done flies. Very impressive.


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:24 am • # 7 
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   That is the way they fish them here............They turn them "inside out". Some are more of a yellowish color, and some appear more green. I can't tell much difference in them, and the fish don't seem to care. Fishing for Red-breast in the North or South Edisto Rivers, (as well as many other places) Catawbas are the preferred bait. A really BIG Red-breast is referred to as a "ROOSTER" and many ROOSTERS are caught each year. I don't think I have ever heard that term, used for Red-breast, anywhere else in the country.   Everyone ////  Thanks for your responses  ///   Don S. in SC


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:56 am • # 8 
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great job TL !


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 1:47 pm • # 9 
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Nice bug.  I also wonder how it would be with closed cell foam for the body and maybe with rubber legs from and back - Chernobyl Ant style but like a woolly worm.

That black/chartreuse bug with grizzly hackle out to nail the bream.


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:03 am • # 10 
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Great looking tie, and some very easy to follow step-by-step instructions.

Thanks for posting this one, I was thinking about trying to tie this in both fly and jig, now you've made it easy for me!

WF


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:54 pm • # 11 
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That's another one for the winter tying list...That will be a killer here in the early spring.  What kind of grizzly hackle is that? I can never seem to find any that fine.


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 Post subject: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:25 am • # 12 
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  Bachlash................I like hackle that is ment for size 12 or 14 flies on size 10 flies. (ie...a couple sizes smaller than the hook size you are using) I know you can trim larger hackle, but it seems to come out much better using the smaller size hackle.....(just my preference).     "this fly in a size 12 is a killer for bream in the spring just before the spawn"  but it will work during any warm month......... Good Luck...............Don S. in SC


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 Post subject: Re: The Catawba Worm
PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:31 pm • # 13 
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Location: Cedar Park, TEXAS
That's Beautiful


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