Turkey biots are very good for tying dry fly bodies. They swim really well.
I don’t discribe every tying step here, because they are the same (except the biot abdomen) as you have seen at the quill body CDC parachute tutorial.
Materials:
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Holger Lachmann
Material:
Put a hook in the vise and tie in some fox tail hair. Put a strand of krinkle mirror flash on each side and tie it in.
Mix the dubbing. I used SLF Saltwater Dub in pearl and ginger and a little bit of SLF Prism dub.
Tie in the mono for ribbing, split the thread, put the dubbing in the gap and spin the bobbin to twist the dubbing and the thread.
Wind around the dubbing, tie in a hackle next to the hook eye and wind it backwards, then wind the ribbing to the front to secure the hackle. Catch the ribbing and do a whip finish. Use a velcro brush to comb the fly.
Cut the hook bend.
Put another hook in the vise and wind some lead wire on the front of the hook.
Tie in a piece of mono for the connection between the two pieces.
Connect the two pieces like above. Use super glue to fix everything.
Tie in another piece of mono for ribbing, then split the thread and put the dubbing in the gap. Spin the bobbin to twist the dubbing and wind it around to the front.
Wind around a hackle and rib it with mono like you’ve done with the first section.
You can finish the fly or dub a little head, put some 3 D eyes on each side and secure them with uv-resin.
tl Holger Lachmann
A fast to tie mayfly dun pattern made out of CDC. It floats very well and is durable. I like to fish it in semi-fast running water. Micro fibetts, 2-4 CDC feathers (colour of your choice) and a bit yarn, that’s all you need. I don’t know who invented this pattern, but I think it was Marc Petitjean.
Materials:
Tie in a loop of thread and 3 micro fibetts. Split the fibetts with the 2 piece of thread after cutting the loop.
Tie in a CDC feather with the tip first. Twist the feather and wind it around the shank. Then cut all little fibres, so that you’ve got a nice tapered CDC body.
Tie in a piece of yarn.
Preparing the CDC
Split the thread and put the prepared CDC in the gap. Then spin the bobbin to twist the CDC and the thread.
Wind the twisted CDC around the hook and pull it up with your fingers after every turn.
Seperate the the CDC with the yarn, to create the two main wings of the mayfly. Catch the yarn with the thread.
I like to fold the yarn back again, tie it in and cut it, so I make sure I’ve got a nice free hook eye.
A whip finish to secure the fly. Take your scissors…
…and cut the fly in shape. That’s it! If you tied some of them, you need less then 4-5 minutes to tie it.
Fish view
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A superb all around mayfly pattern, which lies nicely flat and realistic on the water. Tie it in different sizes and colours to match the hatch. Personally I like to use CDC for the wing instead of polypropylen on the smaller sizes. It just looks more naturally.
Materials:
Tie in a loop of tying thread and the end of the fly.
Tie in 3 micro fibetts, cut the thread loop and seperate the fibetts with the 2 pieces of thread.
Tie in a stripped peacock quill.
Tie in the tips of some CDC feathers as a wing.
Wind the peacock quill around the hook shank and catch it with the thread next to the wing.
Put a drop of tack free uv-resin on the quill body to secure it. Make sure, that there’s just a thin coat on the body.
Tie in the hackle as shown.
Dub the thorax.
Wind the hackle around the wing post and catch it with the thread underneath the hackle.
Cut of the hackle and do a whip finish underneath the hackle. A little drop of really thin varnish secures the whip finish. Ready to go!
View from below aka „the fish view“.
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Holger Lachmann
Most people use CDC for all kinds of dry flies, but it’s a good material for streamer or for example shrimp pattern, because of the movement under water.
This is an easy pattern, which works really great for seatrout, especially when you’ve got sunny, calm weather. Works well for the baltic garfish too.
This fly doesn’t immitate a specific animal, it just looks like food for the seatrout. A little bit like a shrimp, a small baitfish or a mysis.
Materials:
Wind thin lead wire around the front part of the hook shank.
Use some CDC fibres for the tail.
Add two fibres of Micro Chrystal Flash.
Tie in some mono for ribbing. It’s imortant to fold the mono back and catch it with the thread, so it can’t slip when pulling tight for the ribbing.
SLF Saltwater Dubbing in Pearl and Ginger before mixing
Mixed dubbing.
Split the thread and put the dubbing in the gap.
Spin the bobbin to twist the dubbing.
The first part should be 3/5 of the shank.
Bring the thread to the front.
Again, split the thread, put the dubbing between…
… and dub from the front backwards to the beginning of the already dubbed body.
Split the thread and put CDC fibres in the gap. To prepare the CDC i like to use the Marc Petitjean Magic Tool.
Spin the bobbin to twist the CDC.
Wind the CDC to the eye of the hook, whip finish, brush the whole fly with a toothbrush and varnish the head. The fly is finished.
I tried to show you how the fly looks in the water. The SLF becomes semi-transparent. Together with the CDC looks the fly like it’s alive and yummy.
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When it’s getting dark on the river, the caddis often become very active. It’s really fun to fish a big caddis fly surfing over the surface. Sometimes the trouts go mad and take the fly very aggressively.
I don`t want to check all the time, if the fly is floating well. The fly should float like a piece of cork all night long. That`s why I like to use materials like CDC and foam for those kind of flies. If you want to treat the fly with fly floatant, you should use a highly fluid floatant like Water Shed. Very important, Water Shed must be completely dried before fishing.
Materials:
Put a needle in your vise and tie a layer of thread. Very important: Use NOT a waxed thread. If you do, you may get problems pushing the finished body from the needle.
Put a 3 mm wide strip of foam on the needle.
Create some nice segements with your thread. If you got problems creating the body, just google „extended foam body“. There you find some nice videos.
Finish the body behind the last segment with a whip finish.
Pull the extended body from the needle and tie it in.
With a permanent marker you can give the body a nice colour.
As a wing, tie in three CDC feathers. They should be longer than the body.
Over the CDC wing, you should tie in some moos hock hair in the same length like the CDC. It push the CDC down, so the wing is always flat over the body and it increases the floatability. Then tie in some fibres from a pheasant tail. Split the thread, put in some CDC and twist the the thread by rotating the bobbin. I like to work with the Petitjean Magic Tool when preparing the CDC.
If necessary, repeat spinning the CDC and wind it around a second time.
Fot the antennae I used two hair of moose hock.
Pull the pheasant fibres foreward and catch it with the thread.
Spinn some CDC as dubbing around the thread and create a little head, then fold the pheasant fibres back, cut it and whip finish the fly.
To secure the thread and the pheasant use a bit of varnish or really thin uv-resin, which makes the fly very durable.
Finished fly from underneath, or „the fish view“. ;-)
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Holger Lachmann
I like to use a dubbing mix made out of some nice dubbings. Choose whatever you want. One part of the dubbing should be a little bit spiky.
Mix the dubbings together. Here’s my result.
Other materials I use for the Tangloppen (scud in the baltic sea).
Tie in the short marabou tail. Most common hook sizes are # 12 – #8.
Tie in the mono ribbing and the body stretch.
Dub the body.
Turn over the body stretch and catch it with the thread next to the hook eye.
Rib the body with the mono.
Tie in the antennas, make a whip finish and varnish the head. At least brush the dubbing body with a velcro brush to imitate the little legs. Voilà! A nice little easy to tie Tangloppen. Sometimes this small fly is really, really good for seatrout.
I like my Tangloppen unweighted, so I can fish it very slowly and in really shallow water over beds of seaweed.
I posted this step by step instruction already on my Facebook page, but I think it’s an important pattern for seatrout, so it should be part of the blog.
Put a tungsten bead on the hook (here it’s a TMC 2312 #12)
Tie in some fibres from a Coq de Leon hackle as tail.
Tie in stripped peacock quill.
Create a tapered body with the tying thread.
Wind the quill around the hook shank. The dark side of the quill should point to the hook bend.
Put a small drop of uv-resin on the body and cover the quill with a small coat.
The uv-resin after curing. Now, the quill body looks really nice and it’s secured against the trouts teeth. A tack free uv-resin works best.
Tie in some pheasant tail fibres for the wing case.
Tie in a hen hackle with the tip first. The hackle will create the legs of the nymph.
Dub the thorax with a dubbing of your choice. I used SLF-Spicky-Dubbing.
Fold the hen hackle first and then the pheasant tail fibres to the hook eye and catch it with the thread close to the tungsten bead.
Cut the hen hackle and the pheasant tail fibres close to the tungsten head and make a whip finish.
Finish the fly with a drop of uv-resin on the wing case.
A heavy nymph with quiet a real shape, nice colours and very durable.
Holger
Here we are. I will start my blog „The One Fly“. I’m very excited how this blog will grow. A really big thanks to my brother Tobias for his technical support. I’m sure I asked him some really stupid questions… ;-)
Enough talking! Let’s start!
Holger