This fly has worked wonders for me and now with cabin fever at its worst I was thinking (bad for me) and decided to tie a few on a scud/emerger hook. Has anyone tried this? Do you think it will make a difference?
I’m a proponent of flies tied on curved hooks. I would think you’d want to use a light wire hook for flotation purposes though.
However, X Caddis just sounds like it has a straight body. Maybe you should call yours the C Caddis.
John
Here it is on a 16 scud hook… I tie my x-caddis like the E/C Cutter caddis (two tone) but without the hackle. Im a rookie in this game as you can tell…
It works well in my neck of the woods deep in the water film so my thinking was that it would sit lower in the water with the curved and heavier hook… C-Caddis huh?.. hummm
practice tying them like this.
how many wraps do you think are holding the wing in place… I am battling with it:(
a good tyer will only need enough wraps as necessary. the fly above probably has 4-6 wraps of thread to secure the wing. 30 waraps are not needed.
in the link i’m providing, watch the video of hans weilenmann tying the cdc and elk. watch how he ties in the wing and how he uses about 4 wraps to secure the wing. dont worry about the cdc part for now. thats another fly you can learn how to tie.
Like Norm stated, a few wraps around the collar…then I lift the butt ends and place a few wraps in front as well before dubbing a slight “chin” and trimming the head.
When I use deer hair I always make 2 turns around the shank of the hook. On the third pass I make a complete turn around the deer hair only and then continue arouodn the shank 2 more times. I guess that’s total of 5 turns. Just my way but it seems to lock the hair in place and keeps the bundle from rolling on me.
Bruce
I tie mine on a DaiRiki 125 Emerger hook, similar to a scud hook but with a straight eye and they work great. The wider gape of the hook gives better hooking ability also. Now for the hint to get your wraps on the hair butts to hold well. After taking two or three soft wraps around the wing to secure it to the hook, then tighten down on those wraps and the hair will flair. Do not cut off the butts at this point, rather lift up about a quarter of them and take a thread wrap through them and around the hook. Do this for the next 1/4 and the next until you’re out of butts. Now wrap the thread a couple of good tight turns back around the tie-in point, whip finish, cement and then trim you butts. They’ll never move again and you will have a very durable and well-proportioned fly like the one Normand showed you.
Kelly.
