Cash Caddis
Fly of the Month 02.13
Cash Caddis
This month we present an original, modern Southern Appalachian fly that was developed by Bo Cash who uses the fly as both a high floating indicator fly over a dropper nymph as well as a dry fly caddis or stonefly imitation. Bo Cash was our guest fly tyer for our January 2013 Fly Tying Session and he shared first hand how to tie his Cash Caddis. The following is Bo’s story behind this modified Elk Hair Caddis fly pattern:
In the late 60’s and early 70’s, I was nearly a dry fly purist. While no one can make a perfect cast on every stroke, if I ever excelled at anything, it was placing a dry fly into tiny obstacle-filled spots that no one else could reach. A fly that instilled confidence in me was an antique pattern originated by Dan Bailey called the Mormon Girl. It was actually a wet fly pattern that lent itself to being a great dry fly if a paste floatant was applied. It has a yellow body, palmered grizzly hackle, red floss butt, and a “tent wing” of mallard flank feathers. Yes, it could be fished dry or wet.
The Morman Girl served me well in our rough little wild trout gorges for years. In the early 80’s, I met a transplanted New Yorker in a very remote section of my favorite stream who unselfishly introduced me to an Elk Hair Caddis. The body on this example was orange and proved to be a killer. That gift landed many wild trout on three separate fishing excursions before it was destroyed or lost. Tying that fly from memory, I quickly filled an entire fly box with them in sizes from 10 to 16. They floated well, were durable, and seemed to imitate a number of aquatic or other insects.
In the 70’s, I did fish a number of dropper flies, mostly using hard-shell black ants which sank quickly and performed well. Being so light in weight, the varnished thread body ants hardly affected my desired dry fly accuracy if placed on short droppers. However, I began to gravitate toward slightly longer dropper tippets and sinking nymphs weighted with beads or lead weight which made casting and accuracy more difficult. The trade-off was that my fish numbers increased – a lot! Generally, a dry-dropper rig would produce ten fish on the nymph to one on the dry.
The standard Elk Caddis, even when dressed well with a paste floatant, would falter after being mouthed by a fish or sunk in heavy currents. In the late 80’s, I began to double the amount of bleached elk hair in the wing. This helped. More years passed and my vision began to falter, I began adding an “overwing” of a man-made floating material like.
Fly of the Month 02.13 Cash Caddis
Hook: Dry Fly, 1X long, 1X fine, perfect bend, Tiemco 100 or equivalent, Size: 12, 14, 16
Thread: 3/0 Fire Orange or appropriate color to match dubbing
Tail: White Zelon or Antron
Body: Orange Caddis Fly Rite or equivalent
Hackle: Light Ginger
Indicator: Orange or Pink Poly Yarn or Antron
Directions:
1) Debarb the hook and wrap the thread in tight, single, touching wraps starting two eye lengths back of the eye to above the hook barb. Let the bobbin hang.
2) Select a bunch of zelon fibers. Cut the bunch of zelon to about two inches. Hold the fibers in your left hand and straighten the fibers, flattening against your index finger. When they are laying flat you can gently pull away about a third of the total volume with your right hand. If you are not gentle they will bunch up and knot up, making a mess. On a size twelve hook it is about a dozen or so fibers. Tie this in on top of the hook, trapping the zelon at the end of the thread and allowing enough extra length to cover most of the thread wraps previously tied in, as you bind it in with tight, single wraps. Advance the thread back to the tie in point above the barb and let the bobbin hang. There should be about one and three quarter inches of zelon hanging at the back. Pull it straight and trim to a little less than the hook gape. Set aside the trimmed zelon for the next fly.
3) Select a light ginger dry rooster hackle which should be about one an one half the size of the hook gape in barb length. Strip a small amount from the base of the hackle to expose the stem about and eighth of an inch. Tie this in with the shiny side toward the eye at the hook bend. Let the bobbin hang.
4) Apply wax to the thread and select a small bit of dubbing. Wax will help tighten the dubbing on the thread and as you wrap it on. Dry flies require very tight dubbing to hold floatant and stay up on the surface. Tease the dubbing in long strands and wrap by turning in one direction with your index finger and thumb. Dub about an inch and a half. Better to add than to subtract dubbing. Wrap the dubbed thread on to the hook in tight, touching wraps, advancing to where the thread stops, short of the eye enough to add the wing. Do not crowd the eye. Do not crowd the eye. Do not crowd the eye. Let the bobbin hang.
5) Advance the hackle in even wraps to the end of the dubbing toward the eye. Generally about four wraps and tie in with the thread.Trim the excess hackle and let the bobbin hang. Bo does not, but I trim the top of the hackle wraps with scissors by snipping down the middle of the top of the hook. Your choice. Either will work just fine.
6) Select a bunch of bleached elk hair and trim from the hide. This is one of the key points of this fly. Select about a third to a half more hair than a normal Elk Hair Caddis. Clean the underfur and short hairs and put the hair in a stacker. Rap the stacker several times and remove the hair, gently so as to maintain the even tips. Tie in the hair on top of the hook, directly in front of the dubbing. Hold very tightly in your left hand and place on top of the hook. The first wrap is firm but not tight. The second and third and subsequent wraps should be very firm, but you must keep pressure on the bundle of hair with your left index finger and thumb. As you tighten the thread, two things will happen. One, the hair will flair and two, the hair will want to rotate in the direction you are tightening in. The flair is okay as long as it is only in the part in front of the tie in. That is easy due to the pressure from your left hand. The rotation must be avoided completely. This is done by a gradual increase in thread pressure while at the same time maintaining a lot of pressure with your left hand. Is it rotates or moves away from you as you add wraps, rotate it back into position in between wraps. This is really no different from a regular Elk Hair Caddis, except that it is exaggerated due to the increase volume of elk hair. Another aid is to make several wraps in front of the hair (just behind the eye) by going under the bunch of flaired hair and bringing the thread back to the original tie in spot for another wrap or two. The tight wraps are why we are using 3/0 thread. Let the bobbin hang.
7) Select a two inch piece of orange or pink poly fiber or antron and tie in on top of the hook at the same spot as the hair tie in. This is an indicator and will trim slightly shorter than the hairwing.
8) Whip finish, add head cement.
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
Cash Caddis
This month we present an original, modern Southern Appalachian fly that was developed by Bo Cash who uses the fly as both a high floating indicator fly over a dropper nymph as well as a dry fly caddis or stonefly imitation. Bo Cash was our guest fly tyer for our January 2013 Fly Tying Session and he shared first hand how to tie his Cash Caddis. The following is Bo’s story behind this modified Elk Hair Caddis fly pattern:
In the late 60’s and early 70’s, I was nearly a dry fly purist. While no one can make a perfect cast on every stroke, if I ever excelled at anything, it was placing a dry fly into tiny obstacle-filled spots that no one else could reach. A fly that instilled confidence in me was an antique pattern originated by Dan Bailey called the Mormon Girl. It was actually a wet fly pattern that lent itself to being a great dry fly if a paste floatant was applied. It has a yellow body, palmered grizzly hackle, red floss butt, and a “tent wing” of mallard flank feathers. Yes, it could be fished dry or wet.
The Morman Girl served me well in our rough little wild trout gorges for years. In the early 80’s, I met a transplanted New Yorker in a very remote section of my favorite stream who unselfishly introduced me to an Elk Hair Caddis. The body on this example was orange and proved to be a killer. That gift landed many wild trout on three separate fishing excursions before it was destroyed or lost. Tying that fly from memory, I quickly filled an entire fly box with them in sizes from 10 to 16. They floated well, were durable, and seemed to imitate a number of aquatic or other insects.
In the 70’s, I did fish a number of dropper flies, mostly using hard-shell black ants which sank quickly and performed well. Being so light in weight, the varnished thread body ants hardly affected my desired dry fly accuracy if placed on short droppers. However, I began to gravitate toward slightly longer dropper tippets and sinking nymphs weighted with beads or lead weight which made casting and accuracy more difficult. The trade-off was that my fish numbers increased – a lot! Generally, a dry-dropper rig would produce ten fish on the nymph to one on the dry.
The standard Elk Caddis, even when dressed well with a paste floatant, would falter after being mouthed by a fish or sunk in heavy currents. In the late 80’s, I began to double the amount of bleached elk hair in the wing. This helped. More years passed and my vision began to falter, I began adding an “overwing” of a man-made floating material like.
Fly of the Month 02.13 Cash Caddis
Hook: Dry Fly, 1X long, 1X fine, perfect bend, Tiemco 100 or equivalent, Size: 12, 14, 16
Thread: 3/0 Fire Orange or appropriate color to match dubbing
Tail: White Zelon or Antron
Body: Orange Caddis Fly Rite or equivalent
Hackle: Light Ginger
Indicator: Orange or Pink Poly Yarn or Antron
Directions:
1) Debarb the hook and wrap the thread in tight, single, touching wraps starting two eye lengths back of the eye to above the hook barb. Let the bobbin hang.
2) Select a bunch of zelon fibers. Cut the bunch of zelon to about two inches. Hold the fibers in your left hand and straighten the fibers, flattening against your index finger. When they are laying flat you can gently pull away about a third of the total volume with your right hand. If you are not gentle they will bunch up and knot up, making a mess. On a size twelve hook it is about a dozen or so fibers. Tie this in on top of the hook, trapping the zelon at the end of the thread and allowing enough extra length to cover most of the thread wraps previously tied in, as you bind it in with tight, single wraps. Advance the thread back to the tie in point above the barb and let the bobbin hang. There should be about one and three quarter inches of zelon hanging at the back. Pull it straight and trim to a little less than the hook gape. Set aside the trimmed zelon for the next fly.
3) Select a light ginger dry rooster hackle which should be about one an one half the size of the hook gape in barb length. Strip a small amount from the base of the hackle to expose the stem about and eighth of an inch. Tie this in with the shiny side toward the eye at the hook bend. Let the bobbin hang.
4) Apply wax to the thread and select a small bit of dubbing. Wax will help tighten the dubbing on the thread and as you wrap it on. Dry flies require very tight dubbing to hold floatant and stay up on the surface. Tease the dubbing in long strands and wrap by turning in one direction with your index finger and thumb. Dub about an inch and a half. Better to add than to subtract dubbing. Wrap the dubbed thread on to the hook in tight, touching wraps, advancing to where the thread stops, short of the eye enough to add the wing. Do not crowd the eye. Do not crowd the eye. Do not crowd the eye. Let the bobbin hang.
5) Advance the hackle in even wraps to the end of the dubbing toward the eye. Generally about four wraps and tie in with the thread.Trim the excess hackle and let the bobbin hang. Bo does not, but I trim the top of the hackle wraps with scissors by snipping down the middle of the top of the hook. Your choice. Either will work just fine.
6) Select a bunch of bleached elk hair and trim from the hide. This is one of the key points of this fly. Select about a third to a half more hair than a normal Elk Hair Caddis. Clean the underfur and short hairs and put the hair in a stacker. Rap the stacker several times and remove the hair, gently so as to maintain the even tips. Tie in the hair on top of the hook, directly in front of the dubbing. Hold very tightly in your left hand and place on top of the hook. The first wrap is firm but not tight. The second and third and subsequent wraps should be very firm, but you must keep pressure on the bundle of hair with your left index finger and thumb. As you tighten the thread, two things will happen. One, the hair will flair and two, the hair will want to rotate in the direction you are tightening in. The flair is okay as long as it is only in the part in front of the tie in. That is easy due to the pressure from your left hand. The rotation must be avoided completely. This is done by a gradual increase in thread pressure while at the same time maintaining a lot of pressure with your left hand. Is it rotates or moves away from you as you add wraps, rotate it back into position in between wraps. This is really no different from a regular Elk Hair Caddis, except that it is exaggerated due to the increase volume of elk hair. Another aid is to make several wraps in front of the hair (just behind the eye) by going under the bunch of flaired hair and bringing the thread back to the original tie in spot for another wrap or two. The tight wraps are why we are using 3/0 thread. Let the bobbin hang.
7) Select a two inch piece of orange or pink poly fiber or antron and tie in on top of the hook at the same spot as the hair tie in. This is an indicator and will trim slightly shorter than the hairwing.
8) Whip finish, add head cement.
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker