Cdc caddis

[country52]

How long do you guys have your cdc on your cdc caddis patterns? I'm seeing pics of them where the cdc is almost 1 1/2 hook lengths. This seems like it would be too long to me, but you guys are a lot more experienced with tying than I am...

 

[FrequentTyer]

I don't tie CDC caddis, but to the question of wing length go over to Troutnut ( http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/726 ) and look a some pictures of the naturals. The wings on caddis are quite a bit longer than the body. 1.5 hook lengths total wing length seems just about right.
Mike.

 

[LongLineRelease]

Although this varies, most natural caddis that I observe have bodies 2/3 the length of the wings. So it would seem correct to me to have the wings 1.5 times the length of the body.

 

[country52]

Nice article! Thanks for sharing. After reading that, 1 1/2 hook lengths seems to be spot on.

 

[dubthethorax]

I usually palmer the CDC forward like hackle on the hook shank, about 1.5x hook length (I like it buggy), then add a ELk wing above it. I found some nice olive colored grizzly CDC from Umpqua which works well.

 

[JerryC]

I tie all my caddis with a CDC body and a deer hair wing, a variation of the CDC and Elk. I learned a couple of lessons when trying to tie some Little Black Caddis. The pattern book told me it was a size 16, so I tied them on standard size 16 dry fly hook and tied them in the proportions, wing about 1.5 times the body length. They didn't work. I laid my fly down on a rock that had a couple of little black caddis and they were a lot smaller than my fly. I caught a couple and measured them when I got home. An the from head to the tip of the wing it was 7 mm long, about the shank length on a standard size 16 dry fly hook. The body was about 3 mm long. Next batch I tied was on a size 20 shrimp/caddis pupae hook, and it ended up being the only caddis pattern where I use a CDC body and a CDC wing.

 

[SkyBlue]

Maybe try www.cdcflies.com

My web site for CDC fly patterns. Caddis and Mayflies.