Hook: Dai-Riki 305 #12
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Black
Body: Hareline Hare’s Ear Chocolate Dubbin
Wing: Hareline Premium Deer, Yellow/Brown foam
Today was balloon caddis time: 10 flies in size #12 with different foam colors. Will continue on the row with the same in size #18 and then tie up some with green body, then white body with white wing.
Body: Hareline Premium Deer Hair
Hackle: Whiting Bronze Brown
Whiskers: Hares Mask whiskers
Massive big dryfly on tube! Didn’t get the body perfect, but I need a better scissor to do my trimming. This is going to be a fun fly to test this autumn when the trout is hungry and feeding on mice, and if I get a chance to throw this in a salmon river I’ll definitely test it out.
Front view:
In hand for scale:
When I find a pattern that I like I normally do two things: first I tie it in different sizes (normally from #12 to #22) to practice and/or find the limitations on the pattern for the different sizes (and when you know how to tie a parachute in #22 it gets quite easy to do one in #12!). Then I do different color variations to see what could work. Yesterday I did a vinyl rib caddis and today I tied up the same pattern on the same hook but with different colors for body and a white deer hair for wing.
Yellow body: Hare – Tron Pale Yellow
Red body: Hare’s Ice Dub Rusty Orange
Green Body: Hare’s Ear Plus Dark Olive
And finally just one with white deer hair and a body of Hare’s Ice Dub Rusty Orange
Hook: Mustad 94840 #20
Thread: Sheer 14/0 Brown
Body: Whiting Bronze Brown
Wing: Wapsi Premo Deer Hair Natural Brown
I follow a lot of blogs and read my own planet.dryfly.me daily to get inspiration and ideas on new patterns to try out, the other day smallflyfunk had a #20 deer hair caddis that I reallly liked the look of. I got two new strips of deer hair not long ago: the Wapsi Premo Deer Hair, which I really enjoy working with on slightly larger patterns, but on smaller patterns I have never used much deer hair since the previous strips I’ve tried just wasn’t good enough for tying in on such a small hook. So: this #20 pattern was a just the test I needed to see how it holds up.
The quality of the hair is great, the #20 caddis was a breeze to do, the limiting factor is actually getting the wing small enough when you hold it to tie it in! If you are tying caddis or other patterns that require deer hair: go into a shop and really get a feel for how it is, and spend that extra money on a good strip of hair, it will help you a lot in the future ( or you will end up, like me, with lots of bad pieces of hair in a box ). Read this article on choosing hair on globalflyfisher.com
The caddis on my thumb for size:
Hook: Mustad 94840 #16
Thread: Sheer 14/0 White
Tag: Wapsi Life Cycle Bright Green
Body: Taimen Beaver Dubbing Dk. Gray
Wing: Hareline Snowshoe Rabbit Feet Olive
Head: Taimen Beaver Dubbing Dk. Gray
Snowshoe Rabbit feet is not something I have worked a lot with, but here I am experimenting with a small caddis-like fly with different tag colors to see how they will behave and attract trout. The hair from the rabbit feet will be great for a vibrant wing, looking forward to taking this to the river tomorrow.
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