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Elk Hair Caddis

Elk Hair Caddis

Materials

Tying steps

  1. Start thread behind the eye and lay a base to the bend. Tie in fine gold wire at the bend for the rib.
  2. Apply a sparse rope of tan or olive dubbing. Wrap forward in tight touching turns from the bend to the 65% point, building a slight taper.
  3. Tie in a brown or ginger dry-fly hackle by the stem at the 65% point.
  4. Palmer the hackle backward over the body in 5–6 evenly spaced turns ending at the bend.
  5. Counter-wind the gold wire rib forward over the palmered hackle in 4–5 turns, locking the hackle stem. Tie off the wire at the 65% point, twist to break.
  6. Trim all hackle fibers from the flat underside of the fly so it lands flush on the water surface.
  7. Cut a small bunch of elk body hair (20–25 fibers). Stack in a hair stacker until tips are aligned.
  8. Measure the wing: tips should extend to the hook bend, approximately one shank length. Pinch hair at the tie-in point.
  9. Tie in the stacked elk hair at the 65% point with 3 firm pinch wraps, then 4–5 more while maintaining wing angle. Do not let hair roll around the shank.
  10. Trim elk hair butts at a 45-degree angle. Wrap a smooth tapered thread head over the cut ends to the eye. Whip finish, apply head cement.

Notes

The most useful caddis dry pattern in a trout angler's box. The elk hair wing is buoyant, visible, and durable; the palmered hackle creates the skating action that triggers caddis-keyed trout. Tie it in tan for most situations, olive for green caddis populations on spring creeks and tailwaters. Fish it dead-drift or skitter it upstream through a rise zone — both presentations produce.

Where this fly works