Bodkin / Patterns

Alpha caddis

Dry Fly · Emerger · Intermediate · 1 version

As tied by The feather bender

  • Hook Mustad Heritage R50AP, 14-18
  • Thread Grey Sheer 14/0

Materials

  • Body Two moose mane hairs, brown and black
  • Wings Two CDC hackles
  • Thorax Deer hair

How to tie it

  1. Attach the thread and start going back along the shank.
  2. Trim two moose mane hairs, one brown and one black, level at the ends and tie them in at the rear.
  3. Build a taper on the body with thread: go back about a third of the way and return, then a little further to about halfway and return, for an even taper.
  4. Wrap the two moose mane hairs forward together, kept parallel and touching and not twisting, all the way up the body.
  5. Tie off the moose mane hairs with the thread and secure them.
  6. Tie in two CDC hackles face to face, same size, on top of the hook shank, a short way back.
  7. Make a deer hair hackle from the tips of tiny strips of deer hair: trim them in a clip, split the tying thread, catch the hair in, spin the bobbin clockwise to spin the hair up, and fold the hair back.
  8. Using a nozzle cut from a UV resin tube, push everything back, making sure the wings are on both sides.
  9. Whip finish and remove the thread.

Tying videos

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