Bucktooth Callibaetis Nymph

Lightweight and Soft

I look at my stillwater boxes and besides my Chironomid box, the Callibaetis collection usually gets the most pattern swapping from season to season. Like any pattern you fish with, you end up tweaking it over time. I've been working more and more with similar pattern versions just mixing up colors and, most importantly, weight. 

The Bucktooth Callibaetis is a simple nymph or emerger pattern that has no added weight. It's a good dropper on a weightless rig or a rig with a weighted anchor fly. I've also used it dropped from a dry fly. A floating or intermediate line is a good way to present this type of pattern, although we've done really well lately with the RIO Midge Tip lines (currently very difficult to get in the US).

But at the end of the day, as Cheech and I have been finding, a good soft hackle selection in your callibaetis box is a must. We had some crazy good results with his Callibaetis Soft Hackle (you can see the tutorial and material list here) and a few other patterns still in the works. 

A nice Brookie that was gorging on Callibaetis nymphs

The genesis for this pattern was driven mostly out of the need to have a good buggy nymph that didn't sink too quickly. After one trip where I realized most of my Callibaetis were sinking too quickly, I added a few of these to the mix on the next trip out and found they were the ticket for times when fish were focusing on bugs closer to the surface.

Material List

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Hook: Fulling Mill 35085 Nymph Hook, Barbless - 14     
Thread: UTC Ultrathread 70 Denier - Tan     
Tail: Nature's Spirit Primo Partridge Skin, Natural     
Body: Nature's Spirit Stripped Wild Turkey Barred Biots - Callibaetis     
Hot Spot: Ice Dub - UV Hot Orange     
Thorax: Ice Dub - Olive Brown     
Hackle: Whiting 4B Hen Cape - Greenwell     



Other tools from the tutorial:

C&F Design Biot Pliers

C&F Design Bobbin

Tiemco Razor Scissors

And if you're looking for more Callibaetis patterns, here are a few:

• Wally Wing Callibaetis (dry)
• Biot CDC Callibaetis (dry)
• Callibaetis Comparadun (dry)
• Deep Dish Callibaetis (nymph)
• Callibaetis Soft Hackle (nymph/emerger)