Michigan Caddis SBS

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Pretty much a spent-wing Irresistible; attributed to Art Winnie, Traverse City guide and barber.

hook - TMC 5212 #10
thread - UTC 140 yellow/Danville 6/0 black
tail - moose body
abdomen - deer hair spun/clipped
hackle - grizzly, tied behind wing
wing - grizzly hen hackle tips

Part 1

mash barb, start thread (UTC 140 used to spin the deer hair) at hook point and wrap back to bend

clean, stack, measure (shank) some moose body (original called for deer hair but I was looking for something a bit more durable); tie in, trim

clean a clump of deer (no need to stack); trim tips, even up butts, tie in with 2 soft loops, then apply steady tension to flare/spin the deer

pack it back with fingernails, then repeat with another clump of deer

and again; tie off thread

2

Part 2

flip the fly over, lay a razor blade on the hook eye as a reference and push it back to the tail

trim the rest of the body to shape, start 6/0 thread

take a pair of hen hackle tips (= to gap width), put them together with the tips curving away from each other, measure for length (entire hook); tie in at 80% mark

trim butts, smooth with thread; pull wings up/back and wrap in front to set the proper angle

separate wings with finger, secure with Figure-8 wraps

3

Part 3

tie in hackle behind wing, wrap from body to back of wing, tie off, trim tip, trim hackle flat on top and bottom

still a bit chunky

little bit more work with the scissors and it’s done

Regards,
Scott

4

Another beautiful job Scott, although I would encourage you to change the next to last photo with the first. The very first does not really show the fly well.

Now my real reason for responding, do the wings not cause the fly to twist through the air on a cast? I know rubber legs on a fly can cause that and would think the feather wings would do so in spades.

5

Done (thanks for pointing that out).

Possibly. Haven’t tied one on yet; will do so and report back. Please note, though, that these are larger flies (the hook I used is on the smaller side for this pattern) so I probably wouldn’t use tippet much finer than 3x which would cut down on twist, how much to be determined. As always, thanks for the input.

Regards,
Scott

6

I guess a really good flycaster would figure how to put a little left crimp in the tail, angle the trail edge of the right wing and bank it around an over hanging limb for a perfect upstream landing.