Maybe a new Idea for a Fly? Bag Worm.

[thudpucker]

In the Pacific Northwest we'd get Periwinkles out of the streams. It looked like a little bag of sticks with a little red head sticking out one end.

Down here I got this off a Cedar Tree. I thought it was a Seed. :p
Nope! It's called a Bag Worm. Its actually a moth. I have hundreds of them.
The Female stays inside the Bag. I had the one's pictured on my Desk. The Female crawled up my Eyeglasses case.
When I grabbed her, she pulled her head down inside the bag and pulled the Bag up closed. Pretty cute, although my Wife and Daughter were not impressed that I had such a thing in the house!
I thought this might work in the Fall, or from now on out the summer.

[flycaster]

Those things will KILL your cedar trees overtime.
Best to pick them off and dispose of. The best way to kill them would be to pick off of cedar tree then dunk the bag into kerosene or gas to kill the worm.
I have not heard of anyone trying to retrieve the worm alive from the bag and using as bait.

[thudpucker]

You probably wouldn't use the worm. You'd tie a fly that looked like the Bag, and leave a little color at the top of the bag.

[Pat]

I agree with flycaster, they will destroy that tree , I found out too late...........
Bag worm ? maybe?

[bluegillfisher]

My uncle used to pay us a penny for each bag worm we picked. Never used them as bait though.

[pondhopper]

I've got those dang things too. I can tell you how to get rid of them. In a fun way. Tools you will need. A kids rubber band sling shot, toilet paper, teaspoon, bag of seven dust. Take a square or paper dump a teaspoon of 7dust in the middle ,pull up corners , twist to make a bag. put the bag in the sling shot twist tail first toward the patch. Pick a tree ,shoot it into the top branches. the bag busts on impact and rains 7dust down through the limbs. Problem solved. When your as bunged up as me ladders just ain't as cool as they used to be.

[Pegleg]

Thudpucker, I don't think those would find their way into the water. Their fastened pretty tight to the tree limbs. I really don't think many fish have ever seen them.

[fish_4_all]

I have tied a fly that was made more than tied using pine needles, little pebbles and other material normally found on a Periwinkle. It wasn't hard to make but was kinda messy. I did get a couple trout to hit the ones I made in a local river.

I think they would work well. Around here the trout always have some alder male cones in their bellies and they look almost the same. No reason to think that these moth cases don't get blown down into the water in a good wind and I am sure that at least some fish have figured out that they are edible.

If you want the instructions for the periwinkle I will try to find them or I will type them up again and send them to you.

[fish_4_all]

I have bveen throwing ideas around and it really shouldn't be that hard to tie something similar. Stacks of elk or deer hair would work great to look really close to that. Raffia would also be a good choice to tie something similar.