John Juracek is co-owner of Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone with Craig Mathews. I stopped in there a number of times this summer while fishing in the area. One afternoon, the shop was pretty much empty and I talked John into tying me a fly. He asked what fly I wanted to see, I said: “tie whatever you like”. He tied an X Caddis.
The tip is this (am sure many already do this): Trim the butt ends of the deer hair/elk hair before tying it in. Just trim the butt ends at your measure point.
It seems to provide a neater head.
PS this fly is not the best, but put it here to show the head.
yes, and Bucky. He’s like the head shop guy. I think he told me he personally ties about 700 dozen flies a year for the shop. It is one of the few shops where the principals tie most of the flies they stock. He, Juracek and Mathews tie a lot of their flies for sale in the bins.
Have had the good fortune of spending time in there talking to Craig and John. One of my tying mentors here in MI swears by their hair, says it makes all the difference when tying. Bought some a few years ago and he is absolutely correct. Their Comparadun hair and x-caddis hair is made for those flies. Saves a ton of time and headache by using them. In addition, both are extremely nice gentlemen as well.
… of trimming the hair before tying it in somewhere along the line a number of years ago.
Having watched most of the best tiers living / working within a hundred mile or so radius of Idaho Falls at least a time or two on any given Saturday morning between mid November and early March at Jimmy’s All Season Angler for six or seven years, it’s likely I got it from one of them. Lawson, Jacklin, Staples, Sanchez, Harrop, Stenerson, Galloup, Goodrich, Glissmeyer, Wooley - well, you get the idea.
But I never did like that traditional “elk hair caddis” head. The best technique that I learned at Jimmy’s was to cut the hair about 1/8 to 1/4" longer than needed for the wing, loop the tying thread around it loosely at the tie in point and then take the first wrap around the shank. The hair will stay nicely bunched on top of the shank and will flair forward of the tie in point. Then, still holding the wing firmly, take numerous wraps through the butts, creating a bulletproof wing, finished off with a thread head or however you want to finish the front of the fly.
If I’m understanding your technique correctly it seems to be the same way Hans ties his CDC & Elk in the video ScottP posted. That video REALLY helped me tie a better caddis wing when I came across it a couple years back.
…Hans’ video. His technique on the CDC and Elk ( deer ) and the finished “head” on the fly are quite different than I am describing.
The “loop” as I described it is around the deer hair butts only, and then the thread is wrapped around the hair and shank and the tie in proceeds.
Hans shows a couple loops around the hair and shank, then a third one through the butts and a fourth one to finish it, leaving a head very similar to an elk hair caddis head.
My numerous wraps completely cover the deer hair butts, resulting in a finished thread head unless something else is done to finish the fly, for example peacock herl and grizzly hackle on the deer hair version of a Harrop’s Henry’s Fork Caddis.
John
P.S. Follow the link for a FOTW article on the original ( CDC wing ) HHFC.
More recently, I’ve done better using dark deer hair for the wing. The fly handles rougher water better, still rides low, and floats longer and is more durable with the deer than with the CDC, and the fishies seem to like it just fine.
… except in reverse ( wing pointed to rear of the fly ) and many more than two wraps through the butts. Enough wraps to completely cover the butts and form a head.
I used to go to Jimmy’s years ago. The last time I was in Pocatello, I stopped there and it was more of an all purpose store. Not the old fly shop I remembered. Is that the one you’re talking about?
forget that. I just noticed above you mention Idaho Falls. It must be the better of the two???
This was intended as a patently absurd statement, thinking someone would call me on it, but no one did so I will. Just to make the point that unless someone has actually been in the hundreds, if not thousands, of shops that sell fly tying materials and checked samples from all the internet sources, he or she is in no position to claim that a particular source is the “best.”
Having said that, and qualifying it by saying that I haven’t been to Jimmy’s since April '10, of the 25 or so fly shops that I have been in throughout the Idaho / Wyoming / Montana region, plus several more in California, Washington, Utah and Nevada, Jimmy’s has, by a fair margin, the largest selection of fly tying materials I’ve seen in one shop. From hooks, to threads, wires, dubbing, hair, hackle, beads, baubles, and natural and synthetic what-nots of all things fly tying, for all species from the salt to high mountains cricks, you can find most anything you need to tie flies for just about anywhere you can imagine fishing.
As far as deer hair and elk hair go - I can’t remember the last time I used elk, and the deer that I am using came from Jimmy’s. Works just fine for flies tied to catch trouts in the Intermountain West. Can’t say what a fly tier would say about it, maybe something distinctly different ??
John
P.S. Jimmy moved out of the Pocatello shop and into the Idaho Falls location some time before I moved to the Idaho Falls area in late '01. Before I took up fishing, I wandered into the shop a number of times and wondered what all that “stuff” was about. After I took up fly angling, Jimmy’s was ground zero of my experience.
I think it’s inferred that Silver Creek was expressing an opinion, and I’d have to say, based on my experience I’d agree that BRF has an outstanding selection, best I’ve found. The folks in that shop are some of the most creative and innovative tyers around; they’re only going to use exactly what works best for them and luckily for us, we get to share in that (although I’m sure they cherry-pick the absolute best material before they put it out for sale; I know I would). Many times I’ve seen them pull stuff out of the bins to tie up some flies, either as an on-the-spot demonstration or to fill an order during a slow time at the shop (don’t think they have too many of them during the fishing season). I’ve also seen some outstanding examples on FAOL, many of Byron’s recent Sparkle Dun variations come to mind, using their stock; although it’s his talent at the vise that makes the fly, having the right materials is important, too. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have received some of John’s and Kelly’s flies, and if they got their deer hair from Jimmy’s, I’ve got to make the point to get to Idaho Falls one of these days.
I like to stop at BRF a couple times a year when I’m in West Yellowstone, usually sorting through their deer hair bins pretty thoroughly, and often buying a piece or two - not that I really need more, but “just in case”.
Who really knows if they have the best hair or not, but when their bins are full (or nearly so) it’s hard to imagine anyone having better deer hair - certainly someplace might have hair as good though. However, I’ve been there when their selection is pretty picked over, and I didn’t see a single piece that looked like something I’d want. So, like everything else in this uncertain world, “it all depends…”
