The Haberdashery Caddis

I strolled into a haberdashery yesterday while my son had his hair cut. The woman behind the counter viewed me with suspicion over the top of her bifocals. I was an uncommon sight for her I suppose.
She seemed happy enough when I bought a few things however. One of those things was a small reel of glistening green material, with no name on it. While she was ringing it up I converted it into a Caddis pupa in my minds eye. After dinner I converted it into a Caddis pupa in my vice.
caddis exp 1-1-5

The dressing was as follows:
Hook: a grip pupa hook # 16
Body:  that shiny green stuff, 5 fibres wound at once, coated in UV glue
Legs: natural squirrel tail
wing stubs: Swiss straw (Raphine)
Thorax: SLF dubbing
Thorax cover: Swiss straw
Antennae:  Pheasant tail fibres reinforced with UV glue
caddis exp 1-1-10       caddis exp 1-1-8       caddis exp 1-1-2

4 Responses

  1. Nice one Andrew. I have found little green Caddis on our streams from time to time and also developed a pattern which I keep at the ready.

    1. Thanks Peter. I have since tied a few more of these, but with the wing stubbs a little smaller, and the legs made of olive deer hair (reinforced with UV glue) for a little more bulk. I would imagine that my green is a lot brighter than the natural, but then again I used UV light for the photo to make it look a little more dazzling for the “stage”.

  2. Hey Andrew this is a good looking fly. Fantastic places these habby shops. Are you ging to tell us where this one is? Reminds me of a beetle pattern that PB tied a few years back. You are certainly getting afair bit of use out ofthat uv goo. Must get some this weekend. Wonder if these caddis inhabit the centre of the universe?

    1. Thanks Roy, I will pick you up a reel of the stuff for you. The UV glue serves to protect delicate wrappings like goose biots, and gives you a pleasing shiny exo-skeletal effect that dubbed flies lack, as well as a quick sink profile. Some flies are completely coated, but I have avoided that as I always like some trailing legs with movement.
      We shall try these at the centre of the universe soon!

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