FACIAL TISSUE WING CADDIS
Here is a very adaptable caddis pattern. Using these techniques and altering the size and color of the materials you should be able to tie a caddis to match any hatch anywhere. I must give credit to my friend David Martin for teaching me many of the techniques used in this fly. His technique for using facial tissue soaked in flexament for the wing material not only allows us to make a wing any size and any color, but tissue paper soaked in flexament floats. For this fly pattern I have chosen to tie a Zebra Caddis. This species is typically 5/8 -3/4 inches long and is often found along large rivers in Eastern North America.
Materials:
- Hook: Daiichi 1167 size 14
- Thread: Danville's 6\0 white
- Eyes: 20 lb. mono
- Legs: synthetic paint brush bristles
- Body: white deer hair
- Antennae: Microfibetts
- Wing: tissue paper w/ flexament
Color using appropriate colored markers for species in your area.
With the hook in the vise wrap on with your thread. Prepare mono eyes by heating the ends of a 1/2 inch piece of 20 lb. mono with a lighter. Tie the eyes behind the hook eye with figure "8" wraps. Then tie on two mircofibetts 1½ the length of the hook. Tie these in between the eyes.
Tie in a small clump of deer hair behind the mono eyes extending past the bend of the hook as shown. Wrap down to the bend and back to secure the thread to the hook.
Fold the deer hair toward the hook eye and loosely wrap thread to form the abdomen. Be sure to not compress the deer hair. Doing so will crush the hollow fibers of the deer hair and the fly will not be as buoyant. Trim off the excess deer hair and create a smooth segmented abdomen with thread wraps. Color the end of the abdomen with a chartreuse marker and coat with flexament. Coating the deer hair at this point does two things: It seals the color and adds to the flotation.
Next color the abdomen and thorax with a tan marker and again coat with flexament.
The legs are tied in under the hook .Three paint brush bristles are used here and they are tied in between the abdomen and the eyes.
The wing is made from soaking one ply of facial tissue in flexament. Once dry the material can be cut to size and colored.
The legs can now be heat kinked with a warm bodkin to a more natural positioning and the wing can be colored to match the target species.
Try matching the size and color caddis in your area.
For more great info, check out:
Beginning Fly Tying | Intermediate Fly Tying | Advanced Fly Tying.