Female Egg-laying Caddis

I am re-reading Terry Hellekson's fine book "Fish Flies". In the book, Hellekson points out that the female caddis is often the most available to the trout as she lays her eggs on/in the water. He stresses the yellowish egg sack on the rear of the insect.

Using ice dubbing seems to closely imitate the egg sack. It almost looks alive if you look closely

I read the book quite a few years ago and had forgotten about his point. From now on, I will add an egg sack to my caddis flies as I want every advantage I can get on the water.

The bottom photo is a Miller Caddis with a small egg sack.

Dubbing Loop Spun Deer Hair for Hackle

I don't think this method is in the mainstream of fly tying. It seemed to me that making a dubbing loop of deer hair with the butt ends trimmed close would produce a natural hackling. It seems to work alright.

The top fly is a Mahogany Dun pattern.

The advantage of this style (although probably not recognized as a style yet) is that you can cut the deer hair hackle to the size you want rather than picking an expensive bird hackle which fits the fly.

Slipped this one in there. This cdc paradun has the new ice dubbing which is quite flashy.

Water Walker Style of Dry Flies

A view from above and one from below. The fly is tied with two hackles. Each wing has a hackle tied parachute style around it. This is intended to create hackle at about a 45 degree angle to the water around each wing. The concept is to more closely resemble the fact that an insect has legs which protrude to the sides - not underneath the insect.

This is a pretty old method of tying and I do not believe anyone ties these commercially. They might be the right fly for those really picky trout. It is a little more difficult to tie than most other styles of dry flies.

I apologize for the photos. It is hard to show this effect in photographs. I took two views. The first is from above - intended to show the separate hackling of each wing at approx. 45 degrees to the water.
The second is from below - intended to show what the trout might see from below.

Using Quality Deer Hair for Comparaduns

Two-Tone Sparkle Dun Comparadun:









Perhaps not a perfectly tied fly, but I wanted to show how the use of good quality comparadun deer hair makes for a good tie. The deer hair used on this fly is specially selected, dyed, comparadun deer hair from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, Mt. I got it there this summer on my fishing trip.

I used it to tie this Blue Wing Olive imitation.

The comparadun style of tying dry flies is easier and cheaper than the standard dry fly pattern with wings and hackling.

Zelon Comparadun with wood duck wing back-up