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
-
Lay a thread base on hook shank and
start dubbing at rear of hook, just
before hook bend. -
Dub forward two thirds of the hook
shank to hook eye.
- Dub back over the first layer to the
hook bend once again.
- And back again toward hook eye. This is to
build a little bulk since it is a caddis we’re
trying to imitate.
- Tie in a clump of guard hairs for wing.
- Trim butts of wing and bury ends with
a few wraps of thread.
- 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.
- Twist your hackle pliers enough times
to lock the fur in tight.
- Pick bits of hair out perpendicular from
thread before wrapping the hackle. Then proceed
to wrap.
- 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.
- Build a small thread head, whip
finish and lacquer.
- 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)
Originally published December 13, 2004 on Fly Anglers Online.