THE USUAL

Oct 23, 2010

• #1

Usual​

Usual - dark dun for dark bodied mayflies Isonychia etc | 

Usual - cream (natural) for light bodied mayflies Cahills, Sulphurs and Pale Morning Duns, and mid summer "White Flies" (E. leukon) | 

Usual - medium dun for medium shade mayflies like hendricksons, march browns, gray fox, and others | 

Type of fly | dry fly
Originator of pattern if known | Fran Betters, innovative fly tyer and fly shop owner of The Adirondack Sport Shop in Wilmington NY near the Ausable River (NY).
Tied and Submitted by | peregrines
Level of tying experience needed to tie this pattern | Beginner, a very simple and forgiving dry fly pattern using basic tying skills. This pattern is another in our upcoming series of Beginner Trout Fly Tying Lessons. This pattern uses just two materials: Thread and the hair from the bottom of a snowshoe hare's foot (not rabbit's foot). Even the best tied examples of this pattern are pretty scruffy looking. Even though it sits in, rather than on top of, the surface, it floats very well, and is a good pattern for fast water. (It was designed for fast water streams in the Adirondacks including the Ausable River in NY.)
Materials listed in order of tie in:|
Hook | Dry fly
Thread | Danville's Orange 6/0. The thread color for Usuals is traditionally Orange or Red
Wing | Hair from snowshoe hare’s foot
Tail | Hair from snowshoe hare’s foot
Body | Hair from snowshoe hare’s foot dubbed thinly on thread. Thread should be visible through dubbing.
Head | Thread
Special tying notes | Tie on thread build a layer of thread from front ¼ to ½ way point of shank. Select bunch of hair for wing about length of shank. Roughly even tips by hand. Tie in hair tips forward over eye of hook, and bind down butts to ½ way point of shank. Trim butts. Pull hair up right and build thread dam in front of wing to prop wing upright. Select another bunch of hair for the tail about ½ as much as wing, also about length of shank. Tie in and trim butts at midpoint of shank, directly up against butts of wing to make a smooth underbody. Dub thread with thin amount of snowshoe hare and wrap upshank to base of wing. Continue dubbing directly in front of wing to further prop up wing.
If you try and find long hair by poking around on the outside of a hare's foot you may get frustrated. Much of the hair will be short. To get at the good stuff-- the longer hair on the bottom of a snowshoe hare’s foot, split the foot between the two bones that run lengthwise down the foot. You should be able to feel the two bones with your thumb. Here i placed a screwdriver between the two bones and gave it a whack with a hammer. You may have to do this 2 or 3 times at different places to split it completely | 

Here's a closer pic of a split hare's foot (right) showing improved access to the longer hair on the bottom of the foot, next to an unsplit foot (left)| 

Orange or red thread is customarily used for the Usual. Tie on thread behind eye reserving one hook eye length behind eye of bare metal for the head, which will be the last step in the fly's construction. Build a nice even layer of thread over the front half of the hook shank to serve as thread base for the snow shoe hare wing. | 

Select a long bunch of hair from the inside of a split hare's foot-- splitting the hare's foot gives you much easier access to long hair. | 

If pinched and twisted a 1/4 turn in each direction by the thumb and index finger of each hand, this clump of snow shoe hare's hair would be about 1/2 the width of the hook gap. The length of the wing is measure to be about the the shank length of the hook. A few fibers may be la bit longer but that's OK, they can be plucked out later. (Because of the dense curly nature of this hair, the tips of this hair cannot be evened up by stacking.) | 

The wing is tied in tips extending forward over the eye at the 75% area of the shank. Working rearward, take 4-5 wraps of thread over the hair to secure it to the shank. You thread should be just forward of the midpoint of the hook shank. | 

Work your way forward with wraps of thread until you are behind the wing, then come under the shank in front of the wing. Take several tight turns of thread directly in front of the wing to build a thread dam to prop up the wing. The thread wraps must be tight directly against the front of the wing. | 

Work you way behind the wing with thread wraps and cut the butt end of the hair wing off at an angle. The cut should end at about the 25% area of the shank or directly above the hook point. Cover the butts with an even layer of thread to form a smooth "ramp". This will serve as the underlayer for a tapered dubbed body. As you can see the rear 25% of the hook shank ( to the rear of the hook point) is bare metal here. This will be covered with a layer of thread for the attachment of the tail. The butt end of the hair used for the tail will be secured and trimmed so that it joins with the butts from the wing to form a smooth tapered layer for the dubbed body. | 

Select a bunch of hair from the foot about 1/2 the thickness of the bundle used for the wing. Measure the tail one hook shank in length | 

Secure the tail to the rear of the hook shank, cover with thread wraps and trim the butt ends of the tail to form a smooth underbody with no lumps or gaps between the trimmed butts of the wing. (Sorry for the lousy pic.) | 

Pick some tufts of short fuzzy hair from the hare's foot and dub onto about an inch or so of hanging thread with a clockwise twisting motion between thumb and index finger. The dubbing should be a relatively thin layer, not a thick noodle. | 

Wrap forward with the dubbed thread to cover the body. The thread may show through in sections but that's OK. Here you can see that we've run out of dubbed thread. It's easier to reapply another inch or so of dubbing than to deal with too much dubbed thread. It's also easier to place accurate wraps with less distance between the shank and the tip of the bobbin -- another reason to use shorter lengths of dubbed thread when you can. | 

Here we're just adding another 1" or so of dubbing to the thread for the rest of the fly | 

Work your way forward with wraps of dubbed thread until you are directly behind the wing | 

From the top of the shank behind the wing, wrap over the far side and come under the shank and up in front of the wing on the near side of the hook. Take several wraps of dubbed thread directly in front of the wing. Like the thread dam we put in front of the wing, these additional wraps of dubbed thread will help prop the wing upright | 

By reserving space for the head at the outset and being careful to keep an eye width free from thread wraps remaining bare metal, we now have a space for a small, neat head. | 

After forming the head, take a 4 wrap whip finish (or two of them), cut thread and we're done. | 

Target species | Trout, should work on panfish too
Fishing notes | An easy to tie and durable fast water pattern that sits flush in the film and floats like a cork. Vary shades and sizes of natural and dyed snowshoe hare to imitate naturals.

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Last edited: Dec 14, 2011

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TANCADDIS.CA

 

THE BROOMSTICK CADDIS

A caddis imitation made of calftail hair which has a durable high-floating wing profile….sometimes taken to be a mayfly pattern… The pattern features an indestructible wing of calftail hair…it is inexpensive to make and the materials required are readily available…. Developed in the early 1980’s on the Beaverkill River in Roscoe, New York …. Originally, I was making the elkhair caddis without counter-winding wire from the rear to the front to lock in the hackle... and that is the reason that trout teeth would eventually tear up the hackle and windings, so Idecided to leave it out. Then inspired by the current  Swisher and Richards no-hackle style of dry flies, I thought to try no-hackle caddis…. That is how I became interested in the low profile style of fly…often I would observe trout drifting along with the fly,  inspecting it, and then taking it…or sometimes they would refuse and short-strike or just drift away.. Mary Dette's Daily Fishing Condition Report.....the local bible for the daily local patterns... I was fishing caddis and polywing emergers on the Cairns Pool one afternoon…distracted and watching a big hatch of Green Drakes, I tripped on a large rock and took the plunge, soaking all my equipment…My fly boxes of Usuals and Elkhair Caddis were sopping wet…I spread everything out on paper towel to dry rather than losing the hooks to rust… With a long night at The Hendrix Motel, and the fly shops closed, in a creative mood, I developed a replacement material for caddis wings…CALF TAIL HAIR !…with a new way of attaching the wing so it would not pull apart… Inspired by the Swisher and Richards no-hackle style of dry flies, I thought to try no-hackle caddis…. Lucky for me, I happened to purchase some tan calf tail at the Beaverkill Angler Shop in Roscoe, NY. I used to spend some offtime hours there checking for suggestions for the local hatches and for materials.   The store was owned by Budge and Dorothy Loekle .....It was Budge who introduced me to the Usual Dry Fly and for that I am indebted as this is my favorite mayfly imitation….I still remember his bins on the floor full of prime snowshoe hare feet.  Back to the reasoning behind the Wilson Caddis.  If wing material is bound straight onto the fly, it can eventually pull out after being repeatedly waterlogged and expanding. However, if I can attach a material and double it over, something that will fold over reasonably and look good, such as calf tail (deer hair does not work, it's too thick), or even poly wing, then that is the recipe for success….it soon  became my new regular caddis pattern…. Calftail hair can  be folded and doubled over to fashion a wing that will not pull apart.... THE BROOMSTICK CADDIS RECIPE It is so easy to tie for new, young, and older less dextrous tyers too….a buoyant low-profile imitation that uses no hackle…for Brown Trout, Rainbows, and Brookies…the fly became known locally in Ontario as the Broomstick Caddis…. LIST OF MATERIALS 1 ) tan calf tail 2 ) tan Danville 6/0 thread 3 ) tan or hare’s ear dubbing 4 ) Mustad 94845 barbless or hook of your choice in sizes 14 thru to 20…. 5 )  SM silver or brass/gold wire TYING THE BROOMSTICK CADDIS Even if you are plaqued by arthritis but can still tie a fly on a hook and manage a bit of cut and snip and dubbing, then you can make this fly. A)  Mount a Mustad 94845 barbless in the vise and lay down a body of 6/0 tan Danville thread up to the hook eye and back to the bend…. B)  Select SM gold or silver wire and tip a piece down at a 45 degree angle, catch it with the thread….XS wire is difficult to hold onto and if it gets loose on the spool it unravels like the birdsnest on a casting reel….I unwind a bit of SM wire from the spool and when I cut it off, I leave a good inch sticking up so it is easy to grasp for the next time….avoid the temptation to cut it off level with the spool… C)  Apply tan dubbing to the thread and dub the body over the hook shank up to the point behind the hook eye and pause…. D)  Tilt the wire to a 45 and then it up to the hook eye and tie it off…this will add segmentation to the body and be a firm base for mounting the wing so it will not twist around the hook…I use SM wire, silver or gold…you may also use a piece of horsehair, or a colour of thread, or thin pearlescent mylar.   Cut the wire using the base of the scissors so as not to dull the tips…this is thin wire and won’t cause damage or you can helicopter the wire to take if off . E)  Cut a small amount of hair from a calf tail as shown....You will be doubling over the wing…just eyeball the amount…TAKE HALF AS MUCH AS YOU THINK YOU NEED…just slide any excess away from the tuft and put it aside for the next fly…. F)  THE TRICK…flip the tips over in your thumbs so the butts are facing the rear ….don’t worry as we will be trimming them all off later…additionally, calf hair does not stack very well because it is kinky but it is not necessary to stack it as we will be trimming….Wind the thread back to the 2/3 point behind the hook eye as shown…this is the anchor point for attaching the wing material…. You will be double-lashing the wing into place so it cannot pull away from the fly body…that is the main feature of building the fly in this way..it is virtually indestructible… G)  Place the hair onto the shaft and pinch your fingers….. pass the thread up, over and down thru your fingers (pinch wrap) to lock the hair in place so it will not shift position….5 or 6 wraps over each other will secure it… Now wrap back toward the hook bend as shown but not too far…the farther back you go , the more tapered the head…this one looks good…. H)  Now, ready for the Wilson Caddis method of double-lashing down the hair so it can never pull away from the fly…pull those tips tight down over the body and hold in position… Bind them down with several wraps using firm thread tension…then pass the thread under the thorax and pause at the hook eye…. I)  Apply a drop of cement and butter the whole thorax as shown… As the cement is soaking in, apply more tan dubbing to the thread or use hare’s ear to give a little wilder appearance to mimic legs….. Wrap right up to the hook eye, being careful not to crowd it…make a nice tapered thorax and head…. J)  Whip finish the head. Snip off the thread and do not compress the thorax into the cement which is still drying…it is better to leave the wild fibers sticking out to resemble legs…some rogue hairs may be trimmed if desired…but they give the illusion of legs or movement and make the fly look alive ….this is the whole point in fly tying to me…make the fly look alive…every single fly will be a bit different… Leave a nice clear hook eye as it is a nuisance to be onstream and trying to poke glued fibers away from the eye at the crucial time when trout are rising or it is getting dark…. The finished fly..I use sizes 16 to 20 in tan, black and olive body for tan and black caddis and in sizes 12 to 14 in cinnamon or fox for the Great Orange Sedge or Fall caddis when the big browns are out feeding in the cooler weather…. CAFTAIL HAIR ADVANTAGES… Calftail is readily available in a variety of colours..the hair is kinky and strong like steel…yet it will trim into a realistic and durable wing profile…. Elk hair and deer hair are hollow like straws and eventaually become waterlogged and brittle…they tend to tear easily and pull away from the fly…. The calfhair is very durable, virtually indestructible and by using my method of doubling over the wing, the fly will be extremely durable…. The kinky hair traps air well to float the fly …. BODY AND WING COLOUR COMBINATIONS… When fishing a tan caddis hatch, I use tan wing with tan or hare’s ear body flies, and a tan wing with olive body too because many times the browns have switched mid-hatch to another body colour and start to refuse the fly I was using…they will shut down until they begin to see their new preferred  colour so be prepared by carrying several colour combos…… THE COFFEE CADDIS,  when it is hard to see your fly on the water, take a break and put the coffee on…I use a darker shade of coffee-coloured wing to help the fly show up better in fading light or in glare situations… COLOURS OF CADDIS PATTERNS.... I do very well with these combos as general searching patters when nothing is seen on the water…I make a tan wing/grey body or a grey wing/ tan body to suggest dark flies while the regular tan wing/tan body will cover the lighter shades.. How about a sulphur yellow body, black, rust, or lime green ?…You choose a contrasting wing colour… For 2024, I will be using various colours of calf tail wing to experiment.  For example, pink, purple, chartreuse, and white patterns. I even make a white Ghost Caddis as shown below with white wing/white body for use at dark becasue it is easier for me to see in the fading light …and the silhouette attracts fish quite well… EGG CASES FOR CADDIS…. Shown are Czech beads in size 10/0m poison ivy type which are emerald green, the colour of a caddis egg... Mount the bead on the hook and build a dam on both sides to lock in position. It won't hurt to cross the thread over the bead to switch from back to front as the area will be secured with lacquer or a UV resin.  Finish the fly wing and thorax as previously shown... Shown above are glass beads in an emerald green colour called Poison Ivy…the size or 11/0 or 10/0 may be used on sizes 16 and 18 flies to imitate an egg case for tan caddis and black caddis…that is the colour of their egg cases…in size 20, the bead would make the hook gape too narrow but you could also use a small piece of emerald green foam which is the colour of a caddis egg case. And here is  picture of the emerald green foam style of egg case... As a result of using soft hackle caddis imitations, I have incorporated legs as shown below to resemble hatching or struggling caddis…this new change may be fished dry or wet as a  submerger…..this “fussy stuff” is not always necessary but the subtle change on some days may entice that extra hit because the fish are seeing something different…. Just wrap a couple turns of partridge in the middle before the calf tail hair is applied for the wing….tie down the wing at the 2/3 point and sometimes wiggle the thread so as not to trap all leg the fibres, however some will be captured and go along the side…..or attach some partridge or grouse on top of or alongside the thorax and then flinish with a small drop of glue and tie off…. When fishing this model as a wet, I would get many strikes as I drew the fly upwards subsurface….sometimes I would release the retrieve pressure to allow the fly to rise, especially in view of a marked fish position ( like a returning egg-layer or diver )….Now the undulation of the legs will add extra appeal !….. PRESENTATION….. Fish the fly in the same way you would float or dive a Usual Dry Fly or Emerger… When twitched it will appear to be a moving caddis or if dead-drifted then it may seem to be a resting caddis or even a mayfly which is just starting to dry its wings before takeoff..again situational…. THE CASTING STYLE…. When I am fishing, I will use my peripheral vision to take note of flashes and rings that betray other fish locations…. I fish downstream more than up and I use a Tuck Cast to drop the fly about 3 feet above a fish position, and dead drift down to its lie…I keep pressure off the fly by lifting the rod tip and pushing my arm ahead in sync with the current speed….. No takers ?…Then I lift the rod tip and pull on the line to skitter the fly back up to me, as if it is escaping or routinely flying along as caddis will do…I try to make it pass over a spot where I have marked a fish position…often this will tempt them to strike… DEAD DRIFT AND DIVE…THE SUBMERGER TECHNIQUE…. Sometimes I will throw a Reach Cast several feet above the fish position and when the fly is about 3 feet above the lie, I tug hard on the line and jerk the rod to sink the fly…as the fly is buoyant with chemical and will rise up when the pressure is released, I am timing it to be rising up as it drifts towards the fish…This appears to be a hatching caddis or one that has descended into the water to lay eggs and is heading back to the surface…it can rise naturally or I will draw up on the line slowly as in the Leisenring Lift..and make it rise…follow the drift with your rod tip or stop the rod tip and let the fly swing…Mix it up…. PIGGYBACKING THE CURRENT... In this technique I am fishing almost straight downstream toward a fish position so I make a short wiggle cast and cock my rod at a 45 degree angle. I then move my arm ahead in sync with the current speed as the line strightens out and I time it to pause just above a marked fish position. Then I pull on the line to skitter the fly right past the fish. This will entice a savage strike. Be vigilant and try to notice fish positions which are given away by flashes or previous rings..then target the feeding lane of the fish you have observed…when a fly is rising and appearing to escape near these marked fish, drawing it up will often trigger a violent strike, even if the fish has to leave that lane to get it… The fly leaves a trail of bubbles like a comet tail when drawn through the stream by swinging across or using the Leisenring Lift. This caddis pattern is very versatile and suggests life, the key ingredient in a trout fly…When the fly drifts down a riffle, it rides high like a cork and fish have less time to decide to take it…and in slower water, it will pass inspection by even the fussiest of trout…many times I have observed a brown trout drift along underneath the fly in the current, watching, deciding, and then refusing it only to sink away back down to the bottom…in that case I will change the size or colour and try again… I always fish with absolute confidence and anticipation and when a trout does rise or take, I am prepared for that strike…. CRICKETS AND GRASSHOPPERS…. A bit off topic,  however my tying technique will make a simple imitation of these insects which is high floating and durable…. That is why I keep and utilize the longer hair which is found at the tip of the calf tail because it is doubled over and locked in for these larger flies…I make them on a size 12 Mustad streamer hook…. EMERGENCY FLIES…. I also keep two boxes of extra flies in my back vest pocket in ziplock bags in case I drop my whole box into the stream and cannot retrieve it from a fast current… Yes, that has happened to me but it only has to happen once… I have changed from taking a lot of flies onstream to taking 3 to 6 of each pattern…I am fishing fewer patterns but I am fishing them better and more completely… Have confidence in your fly and in the presentation…. At the end of the day, if a fisherman really takes inventory of what he used, the number is often less than a dozen patterns, for me anyways..so why take all of your flies? LOSING FLIES….. While I am fishing, I keep used flies in a separate compartment marked X rather than to pin them on a fleece patch…I find that the flies rub off on bushes and grass or just fall off due to the barbless hooks…. A “lucky” fly that I put aside after a few fish and pinned onto my fleece has disappeared more than a few times so now I don’t take the chance to lose them… I just have to remember to open the compartment of used and damp flies and allow them to air out otherwise the hooks will rust…Don’t forget to do this… ————————- NO TANGLES AND NO MESS ! Another advantage of my flies is that a number can be kept in one compartment of a fly box..they do not clump together because the wing fibers are unidirectional as opposed to a loopwing type of fly…I then group my flies into compartments marked tan 20, 18, 16, or ginger 14, olive 16, and so on… The flies just slide apart with no damge and no wasted time even if barbed hooks are being used…. I also keep damaged flies or “failures” in a separate compartment and will later clean the material from the fly with a razor blade to be remanufactured…I once made a Duck Tape Caddis which was a failure because the tape melted off the fly and it only lasted a few casts..that was a big disappointment but I like to try new patterns and materials… Hooks are sometimes hard to come by so I reuse them,….not to be cheap but they are still good and I will make a used hook into a better fly…It is a big disappointment to go to the store to restock my hooks and find a sign that says “out of stock”…. Posted by BROOMSTICK CADDIS at 5:06 PM No comments:  Labels: #broomstick caddis Location: Toronto, ON, Canada