 FLY
OF THE MONTH
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Trojan Caddis
By Barry Ord Clarke
Materials List:
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| Hook: |
Mustad Signature R30 # 12 - 10 |
| Thread: |
Tan |
| Body: |
Olive poly dubbing |
| Wings: |
Deer hair / CDC hackle |
| Thorax: |
CDC dubbing / CDC Puff |
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| Fishing adult caddis fly imitations is probably the high point of most fly fishermen's season, there are few trout fishing situations that can be as exciting as a decent caddis hatch. The Trojan Caddis is a pattern developed specifically for fishing caddis fly hatches. When an adult caddis fly crashes into the water's surface and tries to crawl out and break free from its sub aqua life style, the pupa case can hang fast at the rear end of the insect, its weight and resistance holding it back from flying free. This makes them easy pickings for cruising, feeding trout. This is when the hatching caddis gives a couple of beats with its wings, sometimes accompanied by a few small jumps. Depending on what type of caddis it is, if it manages to break free it will either fly towards land or more commonly skate along on the water's surface until it reaches structure. You can fish this pattern in most the same way as other caddis patterns, let it lie on the surface a short while and then give it a couple of short jerky pulls, and then another pause, this normally works even under extreme selective feeding. On rivers this pattern fishes best on a dead drift, floating the spent wing caddis over possible fish lies.
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Step 1:
Attach the tying thread to the hook and wind over the whole shank to form a good foundation for the rest of the materials.
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Photo
and fly by Barry Ord Clarke
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Step 2:
Dub the tying thread with a good synthetic poly dubbing so that it forms a cigar-shaped body. |
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Step 3:
With an old toothbrush brush out the fibres of the dubbing so that they all lie backwards.
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Step 4:
Select some roe deer hair, this should be from an animal that was killed in the summer or latest September. The hair from a summer pelt will have minimum flaring qualities unlike winter pelts. The illustration shows how thin the summer pelt is. |
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Step 5:
Cut a small bunch of the deer hair and place in a hair stacker, it's important that the hair has even tips.
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Step 6:
Tie in the deer hair bunch on top of the hook shank just in front of the dubbed body as shown. The wing should be a little longer than the hook shank when lying backwards.
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Step 7:
Now you can split the deer hair wing in half and tie down each side with a figure of eight movement of the tying thread.
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Step 8:
Select and prepare a large CDC hackle as illustrated.
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Step 9:
Now, place your tying thread behind the deer hair wings. With a couple of loose turns of tying thread attach the CDC hackle lying flat on top of the body.
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Step 10:
Carefully pull the CDC hackle forward until the correct length of wing is achieved. Tie in properly. |
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Step 11:
Select a CDC puff for the thorax.
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Step 12:
Tie this in on top of the thread turns used for the CDC hackle wing.
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Step 13:
Take a little CDC dubbing and dib the head of the fly as shown.
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Step 14:
Fold over the CDC puff so that it forms the shell over the thorax but also stick out from the head.
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Step 15:
Now you can whip finish the fly and remove the tying thread. Then cut off the protruding CDC in the same way you would finish an elk hair caddis, leaving a short stub of fibres over the hook eye.
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Step 16:
The finished Trojan Caddis from above. |
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Step 18:
From the side. |
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