March Fly Challenge - Elk Hair Caddis

For the March Fly of the Month Challenge, let's tie our first dry fly, the Elk Hair Caddis.

I have found this pattern to easier to tie than it looks and more important it works.

A good traditional version of this fly is the Al Troth Elk Hair Caddis.

The IFFF has good step by step instructions on page 45 of their "silver handbook"

http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Portals/0/F...ok_10042015.pdf


The rules are the same as last month; tie a fly and post a picture.

Never tied one of these as I never really tie traditional dries. Looking forward to seeing what I can do and seeing the other pictures posted here.

Elk Hair Caddis

Hook: TMC100 (standard dry fly hook) sz 12
Body: Tan dubbing
Rib: small gold wire
Hackle: Brown
Wing: Bleached elk hair
Thread: Tan

If anyone is on the fence this month concerned about tying a dry fly, the Elk Hair Caddis is an easy to tie traditional style dry fly. The hard part of tying this pattern is getting proportions correct and my fly is not a very good example of an "ideal tie". My rib isn't very even and the hackle is too long. (The target hackle length is 1 1/2 hook gap lengths. I used a feather that was closer to 2 gap lengths. ) Don't get too hung up on worrying about proportions, most of the time the fish don't care.

The basic tying steps of this pattern are fairly simple. This pattern is a good one to start with to learn to tie dry flies. I realize most of us don't tie many traditional dry flies here in Texas, but I think you'll find the tying skills needed to tie dries will help you tie better warm water flies.

Just a quick comment on materials. If you don't have the "correct" materials to tie this pattern, then use what you have. If you don't have brown hackle, then use grizzly or whatever color you have. If you don't have some elk hair, then use deer body hair (the same stuff used to spin deer poppers.)

The goal of the monthly challenge is to learn a new skill or improve an existing one by tying a pattern you may not have tied before. Well, that and to have fun doing it.

I'm in again this month. If not tonight, my next weekend off I'll get it tied up and posted.

Here's my version; #14 sabre streamer hook; tan dubbing,grizzly hackle,gold wire, elkhair wing; I rate it a "C"; not good proportions-p-

Thanks Pearow, I like it.

Here is my first shot at an Elk Hair Caddis (and at a traditional dry fly for that matter). Tied it on a size 10 Moonlit barbless dry fly hook with dark tan Super Fine Dry Fly Dubbing, a brown Whiting dry fly hackle and natural elk hair. Now that we have this monthly tying thread I really need to learn how to take better pictures to get rid of the awful shadow.

Nicely done, thanks for posting.

To minimize shadows, place the background about 6 to 8 inches away from the fly.

White and black are the hardest colors to use for a photograph background. They look great, but those colors are difficult for camera light meters to read correctly.

With that said, your picture is fine. Good job getting the focus on the fly.

Thanks. I will change up the background a bit and see how it works. Never fished an Elk Hair Caddis before but I imagine it will be a bluegill catching machine come spring.

Took the Elk Hair Caddis out for a spin today. Ended up with six sunfish, all this size. I would say the fly works as advertised.

Here is my monthly contribution. Tied on a # 10 dry fly hook, rust super fine dubbing, grizzly hackle and I didn't have and Elk Hair, so I used deer.



Will be going out to catch a fish on it Tuesday or Wednesday next week, we should all fish our flies and post the results to.

Nice. Thanks for posting.

Can't wait to see what the April fly is.

I'll post it this afternoon. I wasn't sure if there was interest in continuing this.

This month we'll do another dry fly, but this one can be used in warm or cold water.

It is a quick tie hopper pattern.

Who doesn't like fishing hopper around here?

Lost mine in the trees on sulfur creek. Will have to tie some more up.

After having success with my Elk Hair Caddis I decided to tie up a slight variant, the CDC Elk Hair Caddis. This uses CDC instead of hackle to float the fly. First time I have tied with CDC and I have never fished with it, but I look forward to giving it a shot.