Bodkin / Patterns

Callibaetis Cripple

Dry Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook standard dry, 14-16
  • Thread gray 8/0

Materials

  • Shuck/tail Brown permanent marker (Z-lon fibers)
  • Abdomen Gray-brown material (pheasant tail or dubbing)
  • Wing Natural case (deer hair or dun CDC, upright)
  • Thorax Gray flotation (dubbing)
  • Hackle Grizzly hackle (3-4 turns, clipped underneath)

How to tie it

  1. Mount the hook, start thread, and run to the bend.
  2. Tie in a short brown Z-lon trailing shuck, about half a shank long.
  3. Wrap a slim gray-brown abdomen (pheasant tail over the rear third) forward to the 60% mark.
  4. Tie in an upright deer-hair or CDC wing at the 65% mark, cocked slightly forward. The crippled emerger hangs head-down with its wing up.
  5. Tie in a grizzly hackle at the wing base.
  6. Dub a gray thorax, wind 3-4 hackle turns through it, and clip the bottom flat so the fly rides low.
  7. Whip finish.

Tying videos

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