Views From My Side of the Vise:
By Paul Johnson
The Elk Hair Caddis (EHC) would have to be considered to be one of the most popular flies and can be found in just about every fly box. That is because it is so effective at catching fish. The fly was created in 1957 by Al Troth. At that time, Al was living and working in Pennsylvania and wanted a caddis dry fly to fish some of the broken water on his local trout stream. In the 1970s Al relocated to Montana and started guiding. The fly pattern was “discovered” at that time when Bud Lily’s Flyshop in West Yellowstone started to sell the fly.
As good as the EHC is at catching fish, it is somewhat surprising that it is such a simple fly. It really only has 3 materials: dubbing, hackle and elk hair. You could also add a wire rib if you want. Also somewhat surprising is that the EHC is a very easy and quick fly to tie. Well, until you start to tie them anyway. The biggest issue when tying this fly is that you have a big clump of elk hair that you need to keep on top of the hook. When you apply enough thread tension to keep the hair in place, that tension will want to pull the clump of hair around the far side of the hook shank. No amount of glue or head cement will hold that clump of hair in place, so don’t try that! Fortunately, your fly tying sensei (that’s me) is here to share his secret EHC tying tips. The number and length of the tips is an indication of how many EHCs I’ve tied (and screwed up). So here are the keys to attaining EHC perfection. After a few hundred repetitions this will all become second nature.
- 1. Use the smallest size thread you can make work (yes, it takes some experimentation to figure this out). My go-to thread is 8/0 Uni. I have found that the smaller thread actually helps me to get tighter thread wraps as described in Tip #3.
- 2. Take care when you are preparing the clump of elk hair to comb or pick out all of theunder fur. I also like to remove the really long and short ones so all the hair is about the same length before I stack it.
- 3. When I have the elk hair wing all set to tie in, I start with 2 loose thread wraps and then pull tight. I then add 4 or 5 additional thread wraps at that same tie-in point. Next, to keep the hair from spinning around the hook I lift about ¼ of the butt ends of the hair and get a tight thread wrap in that spot. I repeat this 3 more times before returning my thread to the original tie-in location. From there I will make a couple more tight thread wraps, lift up the butt ends and make several wraps of thread around the hook before I whip finish.
- 4. For the wing, I like to use cow elk hair. I have found it to be a little softer than bull elk.This allows me to get tighter wraps with my thread.
- 5. When tying hair wing flies during the winter, I keep a dryer sheet available that I will keep on the patch of hair to reduce some of the static.
- 6. One last tip. I like to undersize my hackle on this fly. For example, if I am tying a size 16 fly, I will size my hackle down to a size 18. I just think it looks better and allows the fly to float a little better.Hook: 1xl Dry Fly Hook, Size 14 to 20.
- Thread: 8/0 Uni
- Abdomen: Superfine dubbing
- Rib: Dry fly hackle
- Wing: Elk Hair
I hope that these tips will help you with your tying. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Paul Johnson
Waconia, Minnesota
Paulwaconia@gmail.com
Watch Paul tie this pattern on his YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84IAqAnMNE
