Towards the end of the trout season this fly Has been my number one choice of fly. It’s a simple fly to tie and I like to fish it as a duo, usually with a natural looking, small beaded nymph swimming underneath it. 

The steps below will show you how I like to tie the sedge. 

  
Hook – Partridge standard dry #14 

Thread – 6/0 or 8/0 uni brown / black. 

Body – hares ear dubbed. 

Wing 1 – 1 CDC feather. 

Wing 2 – Elk hair. 

Step 1 – place the hook in your vice and start your thread off at the eye of the hook, winding down the the bend of the hook. 

Step 2 – make a dubbing rope with your hears ear and wind back up the hook creating a tapered body. Leaving space at the eye for the CDC and elk hair. 

Step 3 – select a CDC feather to tie in for your first wing. a note when tying the CDC in is I like to tie it in so its just a little bit longer than the body.  

   
Step 4 – trim away the waste end of the CDC and grab your elk hair! Select a bunch of elk hair, when you’ve cut it off the tips need to be stacked to make them line up. All you need to do is place them in a hair stacker tips first, and tap it on your tying bench a few times. Take the hair out of the stacker and place them on top of the CDC.  

Step 5 – tie in the elk hair the same length as the CDC. A couple of loose turns then tighten up with the thread. 

  
 Step 6 – trim off the waste pieces of elk hair, cutting them of at an angle. getting as close as you can to the hook to make it less bulky. Making sure you keep the eye of the hook clear. 

  
  
Step 7 – finishing the fly by tidying up with  a bit of  hares ear to create a head then whip finish. 

  
And that’s how I tie the CDC Elk Hair Caddis! When fishing this I tend to use some gink on the elk hair just to keep the buoyancy of the fly. I hope you have found this step by step helpful! 

I’ll be at Fly Only next weekend (7th November) for their fly tying day tying patterns I use whilst fishing on my local river, be sure to pop in and say hello of you’re passing!