Bodkin / Patterns

Don's Brown Carpet Caddis

Dry Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Tyer Recipe

  • Hook 2X-fine dry fly hook, 14
  • Thread Olive dun 8/0

Materials

  • Z-lon tail Olive brown zelon (A small pinch, about 1/4 inch long)
  • Antron dubbing body Olive brown ice dub (A very fine amount)
  • Z-lon wing Olive brown zelon (Three small clumps)
  • Dry fly hackle Brown hackle (One tiny feather, 2 turns)

How to tie it

  1. Start the olive dun thread and wrap back to the bend of the hook.
  2. Tie in a small pinch of olive brown Z-lon at the bend for the tail. Keep it short, only about a quarter of an inch, well under half a shank length.
  3. Dub a very fine, sparse noodle of olive brown Antron onto the thread and wrap it forward, going back over it with bare thread as you go to pack the dubbing down. The body must stay thin.
  4. Build the wing from three separate clumps of Z-lon: tie in the first clump on the far edge of the shank, the second up the middle on top, and the third on the near edge. Don't worry about length yet.
  5. Gather the three clumps into one wing, pull it back, and trim it level with the back of the body. Not out to the tail.
  6. Select a hackle whose fibres are only about half the hook gap, very small, tie it in at the head and take just two turns, no more, so the fly has only a couple of little legs, then tie it off and trim.
  7. Whip finish a small head and cut the thread to finish the fly.

Tying videos

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