TINSEL CADDIS
I have been tying and fishing this fly for longer than I can remember. The first time I tied it up I used a curved hook because I was out of size 12 and 14 standard dry fly hooks. Not only that, but I was also feeling a bit lazy and didn’t want to dress the body with anything, but I did want to at least put something on that might attract the trout, so I went with some red tinsel against black thread. It worked really well. So well in fact, that I don’t tie dry caddis flies any other way anymore. I usually stick with just black thread and red tinsel, but you can substitute any color thread and tinsel to match more closely the color caddis you’re representing.
Materials:
- Hook: Any standard curved scud hook
- Body: Red tinsel over black thread
- Wing: Elk or Deer hair (stacked)
Step 1: Wrap the thread most of the way down the shank of the hook.
Step 2: Tie in the tinsel.
Step 3: Wrap the tinsel back up the shank, ribbing the body, and then tie it off behind the eye of the hook.
Step 4: Stack the deer or elk hair. Trim off the long ends.
Step 5: Tie in the hair, behind the eye of the hook and whip finish. I use progressively stronger wraps to get a nice flair.
Step 6: Trim off the excess hair at about a 45 degree angle towards the back of the fly from just in front of the eye of the hook.
For more great info, check out:
Beginning Fly Tying | Intermediate Fly Tying | Advanced Fly Tying.