Tom Deschaine of Westland named this caddis-style attractor after Tom Caplis, the friend and fishing partner who first took him fly fishing. Deschaine wrote that he combined the best parts of several similar flies, and he called it his top producer.
The red tail, peacock body and pale elk wing make it easy to see. Deschaine fished it dead drift or skated and twitched it, in rivers and lakes, and said brook trout and rainbows took it especially well, with larger sizes for bass and small ones for panfish.
Deschaine wrote many Fly Anglers Online columns on Michigan's old dry flies and the people who tied them, and gathered that research into his own archive. He died on May 31, 2014, and this site builds on his work.