One for the box
Paul had done something a little different with an elk hair caddis we used on the Culm last week when I was guiding him and has written a little bit about it below. Hope you enjoy!
Had another great day out with Pete on Wednesday, helping me come to grips with our stretch of the Culm which has consistently defeated me both in terms of wadeability and catching fish. The demons have now been exorcised!During the day there was an excellent rise to caddis- in fact the fly of the day was an emerging caddis of Pete’s that caught the whole afternoon. However, on looking in my box, Pete was quite taken with some of the caddis that I’d tied. He hadn’t seen one like it before; I’m sure there’s any number of people that have tied it, written it up and claimed it as their own, but I’d just developed it myself as a solution to my own fly-tying inadequacy.
I’m newer to tying than I am to fishing- and this is only my second season on the rivers. Hence I’m still all thumbs. When trying to tie elk hair caddis in particular, I end up with a fly with no eye- covered by hair and /or thread. I therefore tried tying one back to front so the eye was clear. To my surprise, it worked quite well. Nothing particularly needed to say except tie everything backwards. It helps to start with a good head at the bend. This stops the hair drifting down round the tail during successive chewings. You also get a nice little narrow bit once you’ve tied the body that acts as a nice well in which to fix the hair.
The second thing is to keep the hair on top of the hook else one starts to crowd the gape of the hook and could lose hook-ups. The other advantage for a beginner is that you can actually see the length of hair wing as you tie rather than having it hidden by fingers.
I’d wanted to apply what I learnt on Wednesday by returning to the Culm today. Unfortunately, I had a little vehicular disagreement with the owner of my local pub and, as it was my fault, a few rainbows are needed as a peace offering and I have to go up to a little stocked lake to get them!
Tags: fly fishing devon, Fly Fishing Lessons, Pete Tyjas, Scott Fly Fishing School, Trout Fishing
