The Decoy Caddis

[dc410]

Last weekend I was flintlock hunting with my son. After busting through about a 1/4 mile of briars in an attempt to get some deer up and moving for him, I sat down on a log for a short breather. As I was sitting there I noticed the cord that I had my touchhole cleaner tied to the trigger guard of my flintlock was severly frayed at the end. As I looked at it closer I noticed that this cord was made up of green, tan and black material braided together and it even has a bit of a sheen to it. I bought this material a few years ago at Cabelas, it is called Braided Decoy Cord and it has a very small diameter and it very strong as its primary purpose is obviously to anchor duck decoys. I was looking at the frayed material and teasing it out even more and suddenly I thought that I could probably tie a pretty decent Caddis pattern out of this stuff.

So upon returning home I took this frayed piece of decoy cord to my vise and tied a caddis pattern totally out of the material used to make the decoy cord. I am not sure how it will react when fished, but whether it is greased to ride on top or fished in the film or even under the surface I think it will be a productive pattern. I basically tied this pattern with the Tulpehocken in mind when the green caddis start popping this spring. Here is a photo of my decoy caddis tied on a size 16 dry fly hook.

 

[GenCon]

DC, that is just a good looking fly. Great story too.

GenCon

 

[djs12354]

just might lure them in. Nice tie and great story!

 

[lv2nymph]

John, great revelation. Don't ya just love it when that happens? It's a fine tie and should work well, if at first it doesn't give it a full year before you dump it. Keep me posted! Cool name btw...

 

[Fishidiot]

Cool!

The best fly tiers I know are innovative about how they identify and adopt new materials (or new ways of utilizing old materials). This is a good example.
In my own efforts to do this, the end product is often a great looking fly (in the vise) but when actually used on the stream, it doesn't perform - then back to the drawing board. These days, I'll test new flies in a tank or water bowl to verify they will float or swim the way I imagine. Even then, when actually fished, they sometimes still flop.

Anyway, such trial and error can lead to great results. Let us know how this one works out.

 

[dc410]

Thanks guys. Hopefully I will have some results to share after field testing this pattern in a few months.

 

[blueheron]

Throw the fly in a bowl of water and see if it floats. If it does, cut some up and send it to your buddies. I'll help you field test it.