Tying Tip I got from john Juracek this summer
John Juracek is co-owner of Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone with Craig Mathews. I stopped in there a number of times this summer while fishing in the area. One afternoon, the shop was pretty much empty and I talked John into tying me a fly. He asked what fly I wanted to see, I said: "tie whatever you like". He tied an X Caddis.
The tip is this (am sure many already do this): Trim the butt ends of the deer hair/elk hair before tying it in. Just trim the butt ends at your measure point.
It seems to provide a neater head.
PS this fly is not the best, but put it here to show the head.
http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/...h/IMG_2280.jpg
Picked up on the technique ...
... of trimming the hair before tying it in somewhere along the line a number of years ago.
Having watched most of the best tiers living / working within a hundred mile or so radius of Idaho Falls at least a time or two on any given Saturday morning between mid November and early March at Jimmy's All Season Angler for six or seven years, it's likely I got it from one of them. Lawson, Jacklin, Staples, Sanchez, Harrop, Stenerson, Galloup, Goodrich, Glissmeyer, Wooley - well, you get the idea.
But I never did like that traditional "elk hair caddis" head. The best technique that I learned at Jimmy's was to cut the hair about 1/8 to 1/4" longer than needed for the wing, loop the tying thread around it loosely at the tie in point and then take the first wrap around the shank. The hair will stay nicely bunched on top of the shank and will flair forward of the tie in point. Then, still holding the wing firmly, take numerous wraps through the butts, creating a bulletproof wing, finished off with a thread head or however you want to finish the front of the fly.
John