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AllChuck Caddis
By Grant Ings (Yaffle)

I'm not sure what fly fishing would be like without caddis flies. I fish dry flies about eighty percent of the time and caddis flies patterns about sixty or seventy percent of the time spent fishing dries.

I tie and fish all types of caddis patterns. For the most part they are fairly easy to tie and the trout on my small creeks seem to love em.

The first time I saw the Woodchuck caddis I was very impressed by the wing. It looked very different than any hair wings that I tie, to me it gave an impression of movement, I could almost see the wing fluttering. It didn't sit nice and neat the way my fine deer hair wings did, and I really liked the two tone look.

So, down to the local fly shop to get some woodchuck fur. I got it home and proceeded to tie. I like coarse dubbing and the under fur here is very coarse. Wood chuck became the body. After tying in the wing, it just took a dubbing loop to create the hackle, thus the on material AllChuck Caddis was born. I'm not so sure that it'll replace my favorite caddis imitation, but I do plan on doing a whole lot more fishing next summer and we'll see just how effective this pattern is, Lord willing...

Materials: AllChuck Caddis

Just a patch of Woodchuck fur, a dry fly hook, and thread.

Tying Instructions: AllChuck Caddis

1. Lay a thread base on hook shank and start dubbing at rear of hook, just before hook bend.

2. Dub forward two thirds of the hook shank to hook eye.

3. Dub back over the first layer to the hook bend once again.

4. And back again toward hook eye. This is to build a little bulk since it is a caddis we're trying to imitate.

5. Tie in a clump of guard hairs for wing.

6. Trim butts of wing and bury ends with a few wraps of thread.

7. Using your hackle pliers grab a length of thread and wrap the end back over the hook shack to form a loop. Put you fore finger in the loop to keep it open long enough to place some under fur mixed with guard hairs into loop as shown.

8. Twist your hackle pliers enough times to lock the fur in tight.

9. Pick bits of hair out perpendicular from thread before wrapping the hackle. Then proceed to wrap.

10. With Thumb and fore finger of your free hand, pinch the hackle and sweep back toward wing. After sufficient wraps, tie off leftovers with thread.

11. Build a small thread head, whip finish and lacquer.

12. Trim the Dubbing hackle in a semicircle, flush or at least close to the bottom of the fly. Finished AllChuck.

This is a pattern that you know will catch fish especially if you fish caddis patterns a lot. I've fished this pattern a couple of times and if you're like me, your one concern might be "yeah, and how well does it float?" The answer is surprisingly well. Coarse dubbing traps air and with the longer guard hair and dubbing loop trimmed in a semicircle you'll be surprised at how well it floats. ~ Grant Ings (Yaffle)

For more great flies, check out: Beginning Fly Tying, Intermediate Fly Tying and Advanced Fly Tying.