Anyone tie or fish Comparaduns

[buffalo7]

I never fished or tied comparaduns. Today I was sitting at my tieing table, I picked up a piece of deer hide with hair from a deer I killed in PA about 35 years ago. It always worked well for me with Letort hoppers and wolf flies. I took a nice clump of hair and put it in the stacker and got all of them even. I tied the clump of hair not to far behind the eye of the hook and fanned them out 180 degrees, then tied a clump of hairs for a tail, took some black poly dubbing I had laying there and made the body then tied off the head. since the river 60 ft. away that I've been keeping a eye on all day is only good for white water rafting or kyaking at the time, I put some water in the bathroom sink then droped the fly in, it did alright for a couple seconds then went down. I cut everything off the hook and did it over except I use a newer finer type of poly and tied a tighter body but it did the same thing. I went and got an Orvis Sri Lankan sparkledun I got with a intro. offer and tried it. It did ok but it didn't look any better than my fly. I guess it's the deer hair.

I was wondering how they do for other people that fish and tie them?

 

[midnightangler]

comparadun are excellent. one of the most effective dry flies when fish are rising in flat water. it isn't a particularly buoyant fly, but rising fish often take them when they refuse other imitations.

as far as flotation is concerned, i recommend applying gink. i often use a mix of elk hair and cdc for the wing, which increases the buoyancy a bit. you will probably spend some time drying your comparadun with false casts, especially after a trout drowns it for a spell.

 

[gfen]

buffalo7 wrote:
I was wondering how they do for other people that fish and tie them?

I marvelled at it when I was done tying my first one in a class. What a terrifficly simple and effective little beast, eh? I was excited, I obtained two colours of coastal deer hair that weekend and quickly sat down to make a pile.

Fished them that weekend on a long, slow glide where that sort of thing is supposed to excel, never went back.

Do they work? Yeah, I caught one of the notoriously picky fish from that run with it, but it just didn't want to play well with my fishing style which involves wildly flailing a rod and drowning flies.

The Comparadun is descended from the Haystack, which in turn spawned the Usual. The Usual is a far less elegant, yet far more effective, fly when I use it.

I think I still have some comparaduns, but most of that original group has slowly disappeared to tree limbs when I was desperate. I don't really plan to replace them.

 

[reds]

I like them for particular hatches, mostly stuff over a 16. i treat them to keep them afloat. For March Browns and hendricksons this is my preferred style of fly and i do well with them, sometimes tie with antron tail and purposely swing them at the end.

 

[buffalo7]

I guess I'll tie some after I buy more deer hair, and try some CDC in it like midnightangler sugested. I don't know if deer hair loses it's buoyancy with age or not, but I threw away enough deer hides since the last one I tacked out to take care of everyone. I tied a Letort hopper with it a little bit ago, it did ok, but you use the base of the hair for the head and that part of the hair is more buoyant.

 

[DGC]

Most of the deer and elk hair patches sold in fly shops will tie pretty good # 14s and # 12s.

However, smaller comparaduns, say # 18, require hair that has short tips so that the tie down point is still compressable. You can't just use hair that is appropriate for a # 12 and translate it to a # 18, because those finer hair tips will not compress when you tie them in, making for a loose, not very bouyant and obviously too lumpy, tie in and wing.

There is also something a bit muscular about a comparadun that, to my eye, is fine for a juicy # 12 March Brown, Light Cahill, or Slate Drake, but that does not look right for a # 18 blue quill or BWO, where the impression is more of vulnerable delicacy. I know some guys do tie them in the smaller sizes, and they look and float right, but they are far better tiers than I am. They also managed to score a really good patch of hair for those sizes, something to hold dear like short-barbed soft hackles.

You mentioned mixing CDC with the deer hair on a comparadun. I posted this video elsewhere recently but no harm in a little repetition if it's applicable and helpful:

Tying a Deer Hair and CDC Comparadun by Davie McPhail

Note that it is also available in an HD version.

 

[buffalo7]

DGC,
Thanks for the video, I saw when you posted it but I'll have to wait until I take my laptop over my sons or somewhere there is high speed internet, I'm surrounded by mountains here and only have dial up, but I'll definitly check it out thanks again.

 

[whheff]

DGC wrote:
You mentioned mixing CDC with the deer hair on a comparadun. I posted this video elsewhere recently but no harm in a little repetition if it's applicable and helpful:

Tying a Deer Hair and CDC Comparadun by Davie McPhail

Note that it is also available in an HD version.

Thanks for posting th video again. I like Davie McPhail's flies and have tied his caddis pattern. I just have to listed to the 3 or 4 time to understand him.

I will have to give this one a try.

 

[PennKev]

midnightangler wrote:
comparadun are excellent. one of the most effective dry flies when fish are rising in flat water. it isn't a particularly buoyant fly, but rising fish often take them when they refuse other imitations.

as far as flotation is concerned, i recommend applying gink. i often use a mix of elk hair and cdc for the wing, which increases the buoyancy a bit. you will probably spend some time drying your comparadun with false casts, especially after a trout drowns it for a spell.

My experience is quite the opposite. I find them a very bouyant fly that also rides low on the surface. A very good combination of attributes in a dry fly. Perhaps your flies do not have enough deer hair in the wings or hair that is not suitable for tying C'duns.

I do like the addition of CDC, I think it has a good look that appeals to fish. You can even dispense with the deer hair altogether and make a wing out of CDC and poly yarn. I think this combo is over all less bouyant than strait deer air, but it is easier to tie in small sizes.

Kev

 

[littlelehigh]

I to don't find fish picky as to whether the wing is oversized, undersized, to full or to sparse. Heck I blind fished a deer hair C'dun for tricos half the summer last year and killed em. Bleached or natural color wing didn't matter either. Bleached was def easier to see on the water.

I think body color of the fly matters more than the wing itself. An oversized wing allows the fly to drop just a tad lower in the film.

 

[jrcll]

you can also use them as an emerger, just let the hair lay back instead of staight up, i`ve had pretty good luck tyin it that way