New Brachycentrus Fly – now known as the “Brach”

I fell in love with this chimney built caddis house when I learned about them with my husband Eric doing research for his Anglers’ Entomology Podcast episode #21 about Caddisflies.  I wanted to find a way to imitate what you see in the first photo.  The Brachycentrus

became my new quest to tie.  A most important characteristic to copy was the square chimney-shaped housing.

Here’s how I did it-First, place glass beads, green and black, or just black or brown if you want, for the protruding abdomen and thorax/head onto the hook shank and form a base of thread to the rear of the hook.

The fun part next-take a thick turkey quill, cut and split down the middle.  The pith is then pressed in, forming a notch.  The hook shank is placed in that notch, with a piece of quill on either side of the hook, super-glued in.  I then use a permanent marker to color the thread orange, adding dark brown and olive green spots randomly onto the orange thread.  That, wrapped around the quill, gives the square Brachycentrus case.   Then I use the turkey quill fibers, torn from the quill to give that little foot, as the legs.  Last I coat the thread body with a thin layer of head cement to soak in.  I tried a thin layer of UV resin, but it made the case a round shape rather than keeping the square shape.

I still tossed those in my fly box but prefer the Veniard Cellire best.  It went unnamed for a long time, but is now unoriginally just called the “Brach.”