 FLY
OF THE MONTH
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Light
Cahill
By Luca Montanari
There
are many factors deciding the food preferences
of various fish species. The "fliers",
with their small hairy imitations, have without
shadow of doubt a large responsibility for the
feeding behaviour of trout and grayling, however,
it is legitimate to suppose that the fish prefer
some insects because they are tastier to eat. If
we consider the females of the Baetis scambus and
of the Baetis muticus, as an example, we can notice
that the trout often prefer them to any other insect,
taking them selectively even if they are present
on the water in a small number. From here, in order
to overcome the shyness of our adversaries, we
can use a small Light Cahill, an artificial which
is very effective during the hatching of the B.
scambus and B. muticus.
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Materials List: |
Hooks: |
Mustad
Signature ref. R30 size 18 to 12 |
Thread: |
Yellow |
Tails: |
Fibres
of a cream cock hackle |
Body: |
Dubbing
of cream polypropylene |
Ribbing: |
Fine
copper wire |
Wings: |
Tufts
of grey mallard flank feather |
Hackle: |
Light
blue dun and cream
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Tying
instructions: |
Step
1:
I
take the first step of the building process of
the Light Cahill by fixing the hook into the vice
jay and tying in the yellow thread on the shank,
which I use for nailing, over the bend, a tuft
of fibres stripped off from a large cream coloured
cock hackle. The tails so created must have a length
approximately equivalent to the hook shank . |
Photos
and fly by Luca Montanari
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Step
2:
I
wax a short stretch of thread and I apply a pinch
of cream coloured polypropylene to it to make a
compact dubbing. The dubbing is then used to form
the fly body along the rear two-thirds of the hook
shank. |
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Step
3:
From
a blue dun and a cream cock neck, I select two hackles
that have the fibres as long as the hook shank and I
tie them in front of the body. From a grey flank feather
of a mallard, I cut a small tuft of fibres and I tie
it on the hook, placing it in the middle section of the
front third of the shank and with the point of the fibres
extended upwards. At the end of this implantation, the
wings must have nearly the same length as the hook shank.
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Step
4:
With
the apposite pliers, I wrap, one after the other, the two
hackles around the front part of the hook, passing them
behind and in front of the wing structure to create a fluffy
collar. |
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Step
5:
Next
I cut off the surplus of the hackles and I create the fly
head with some turns of the yellow thread, which is then
finished with a whip-finish. |
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Step
6:
A
light layer of glue uniformly distributed over the head
will prevent the thread to untie itself, increasing the
resistance of the Light Cahill. My imitation can now be
introduced into the fly box, ready to be used during a
spring or a summer day, when I see some yellowish Ephemeras
on the river surface. |
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The
Light Cahill is one of the 86 flies described in
Luca's recent book entitled "Flies - Mosche da pesca".
To get more information about it click on http://www.edolimpia.it/lev_1/pesca/top_pesca.htm
or send an e-mail to
libri@edolimpia.it) .
Although
it's written in Italian, it should be interesting
to many fly tiers due to the many excellent photographs.
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