Opal and Elk Caddis
Recipe - Opal and Elk Caddis
View the Step by Step Instructions
- Hook
- TMC100 or standard dry fly, #12-#18 (a #12 will hang a small bead head)
- Thread
- UTC 50 denier GSP, olive or white (regular tying thread will not work)
- Rib
- Fine gold wire
- Abdomen
- UTC Opal Tinsel, medium
- Hackle
- Whiting Farms Dry Fly Saddle, light or medium dun
- Wing and Head
- Very high quality elk, natural dark or light (I use Ultra Select Elk from Blue Ribbon Flies)
I tied my first tinsel body dry fly (back then pearl tinsel) about twenty years ago when the material first became available to tiers in spool form. I had used the large size, 2mm, on streamer bodies with great success and decided to whip up a few dry flies to see what they looked like. I took the venerable Henyrville Special caddis and turned it into the “Pearlyville Caddis”.
It was late in the dry fly season and not a fish was rising, nor were there any bugs on the water, so I walked through the cedars along the bank looking for a target or two. Several little brook trout were hanging in the shallows and I walked back upstream a bit to get into casting position.
I started out with the standard Henryville and made several good casts over the spot where I had seen the little fish. Nothing. Not even a look. I switched to one of the pearl tinsel body bugs, made the same cast and caught one on the first pass. I recall catching three or four more. They whacked it.
My pearl caddis flies were a huge hit. I took most of my caddis patterns and switched from dubbed bodies to tinsel.
Of all the hackled flies, the Pearl & Elk Caddis was far and away the best producer. That did not change until several years back when opal tinsel hit the market. It allowed me to take the tinsel bodied bugs to the next level.
Opal tinsel has such a reflective, iridescent quality, it almost glows in the dark. This stuff captures and reflects the most minute amounts of available light. It works as well, if not better, than pearl tinsel during bright days, but during the gray of dawn or dusk and into dark, the effectiveness of this fly is astounding. It is far and away the best searching dry fly I've ever used. I use it on the AuSable, throughout the Midwest and it is a staple in our fishing in Montana. Last year, 2008, it “rocked em” on Rock Creek during the Spruce Moth event, and for years it has been a top producer on the mighty Missouri.
This fly needs to be in your box!
