Never the first fly I tie if I’ve been away from the vise for a while. Pretty basic in terms of materials and not that complicated, but you have to nail proportions/amounts/thread tension to get a decent looking one; ugly ones do catch fish, but my ugly ones tend to come apart, too. I’ve tied them skinny (cut the hair closer to the hook shank) but mine never floated as long, so I go more with the full figured look. For smaller sizes I go with sturdier nymph hooks (something like a Mustad 3906) - makes it a bit easier for me when spinning the hair. These suckers really do float like a cork in even the roughest water and are great for pounding up fish that don’t even know they’re hungry.
hook - Dai Riki 320 #12
thread - UTC 70 brown
body - deer hair
hackle - brown (I like to undersize it a bit, so for this fly I’d want something a bit bigger that #14 hackle but not quite a #12; sounds a bit anal but it seems to sit on the water better)
Part 1
Mash down barb, attach thread at 50% and wind back to the bend
cut a generous clump of deer hair, clean but don’t stack and trim tips
hold deer hair on top of hook (you’ll want it a little longer off the back end)
with hair pinched to hook, 2 soft loops right on top of each other
draw the bobbin slowly and firmly towards you but maintain pinch so it doesn’t spin; hair will flare in the front which is what you want
take a couple wraps through the flared hair which will distribute it around the hook shank and move thread forward; push the flared hair back with your fingernails (while holding onto the tail) to compress the hair; sorry only 2 hands available so I can photograph
cut and clean another clump of hair and trim the tips; make this one shorter than the first clump since you’re going to spin it
hold it on top of the hook with right hand (if you’re a righty tier)
and apply 3 soft loops right on top of each other; holding the clump with your “bobbin” fingers checks the tendency for the thread to slide down the clump too far (again lack of 3rd hand means no pic; sorry)
draw the bobbin slowly and firmly towards you and allow hair to spin around hook shank
pack hair back against first clump, try to get it as tight as possible (fingernails, hair packer, whatever works for you); add another clump, pack it, tie off and apply a small bit of Sally
flip it over and with 1/2 of a double edged razor blade (use the hook eye as a depth of cut gauge)
push the bade straight back to the hook bend
flip the fly back over and establish top of body, pushing blade back at an upward angle
then make cuts on both sides, angling back and out slightly
guys like Skip Morris and Charlie Craven get amazing results using mainly the razor blade but I need the hair scissors to get the final shape I want (I take the fly out of the vise and hold it with forceps)
You, or other readers, might like a bit of background to the pattern. It has veen developed by John Goddard and Cliff Henry in the UK, and originally was called the G+H Sedge. The way you showed it is how they are mostly tied these days, but you might also try the original recipe. The hackle is trimmed flush on top. and there is a ventral line of olive seal’s fur in a dubbing loop from bend to hackle.
I think it (contemporary Goddard Caddis and the original dressing) looks a little more balanced on a 2x long hook. See what you think.
I really like little Goddards. They are quite visible, float really well even after several fish, quite durable, and a “good enough” match for most caddis hatches. I tie them pretty much like Scott did here (sans antennae). However, one little trick that I like is to color the bottom of the fly in the abdomen area with a permanent marker to match the natural. By varying the color of the abdomen marker and hackle, you can match quite a few caddis hatches.
I tie them with either caribou or rabbit foot hair most often… The caribou is very light colored and very easy to tint with markers as you point out… The rabbit foot fur makes for a shaggy, very buggy bug that seems to float better…
