Bodkin / Patterns

Bucktail Caddis

Dry Fly · Trout · Grayling · Advanced · 2 versions

As tied by Savage Flies (Umpqua dressing)

  • Hook dry fly, 6-12
  • Thread yellow 70 denier

Materials

  • Tail Moose body hair (black)
  • Body Yellow wool yarn (or to match any caddis)
  • Hackle Brown dry fly hackle, palmered
  • Wing Deer hair

How to tie it

  1. Lay a yellow thread base down to the start of the bend.
  2. Stack a bunch of 10-12 or so black moose body hair fibres and tie in only the tips as the tail, about a hook gap in length; leave the butts as part of the underbody.
  3. Take loose wraps forward to where the front of the body will be, then trim the moose butts.
  4. Tie in a brown dry fly hackle at the rear, sized so the fibres reach about to the hook point.
  5. Tie in separated strands of yellow wool yarn, keep the body thin, wrap it forward and leave room at the front for the wing; catch it off.
  6. Palmer the hackle forward in four or five turns, tie off and trim.
  7. Stack a small clump of deer hair and tie it on as the wing, measured to about midway down the tail.
  8. Bury the wing butts under the thread head instead of leaving a clipped hair head; build a ramp of thread but keep the eye clear.
  9. Whip finish and add a drop of head cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Dave Hughes' dressing, as tied by Savage Flies.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns