Fly Tying a Fluttering Caddis - Classic American Dry Fly

[@cjorde673]

Thank you Matt, I learned about the fluttering caddis when my wife’s uncle passed away and I inherited a copy of “Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect, authored by Leonard M. Wright, Jr. Interesting book. Thank you for the video.

[@mikeney5113]

Great looking flie Thanks for sharing!

[@davehall2160]

That is a great looking fly Matt

[@PreppingWithSarge]

Looks like Dave had a great mind for tying! Have a great morning Matt 👊

[@mikewalters4994]

Thanks for sharing that pattern with us Matt. Kool

[@SavageFlies]

You bet Mike- appreciate you watching my friend!

[@OttoJulian_]

Hey there Matt!!! Nice. You had me worried when you first said Ming tail lol. This was a quick one! Thanks

[@TERRYBIGGENDEN]

That's a very excellent looking fly-simple and very useful I'd say. :-)

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Terry! I appreciate it my friend. :-)

[@jamesvatter5729]

Good one. That's the lightest colored mink tail I've ever seen, Matt. Usually they're a deep brown.

[@SavageFlies]

I didn't realize that. Makes me wonder if this one was bleached. Or maybe like rabbits, minks come in various natural colors. I'm thinking of ordering some more so I'll definitely research the colors. Thanks for the note!

[@themazamen]

One of my recent epiphanies is on chasing materials. We as Fly tyers get fixated on acquiring exact materials when in reality the original creators were probably just using what they had available at the time and worked. Whitlock 's RFS nymph comes to mind. Now that I've been tying for a few years, I try to understand what the designer was trying to accomplish and look to see what I have in my inventory that would do that. For get me wrong, I love experimenting with new materials, I'm just not paralyzed by the materials list anymore.

[@SavageFlies]

That's a pretty good take, and one I hadn't thought much about before. I made one sort of like Whitlock's red fox squirrel out of opossum and for all practical purposes it looks nearly identical to the RFS (probably in and out of the water). I've wondered if we sometimes give the fly designers of 100+ years ago too much credit for innovation when a lot of them were basically using what they have out of necessity. I don't know. I don't want to take anything away from any of the great tiers in our history, but sometimes I think we get too wrapped around the axle trying to chase the exact material when there are plenty of viable substitutes. But on the other hand, sometimes it's fun chasing the material just for the chase. (Of course we have to be careful or we could fall into the camp of the salmon fly tiers who would do anything to get a couple Indian crow or cotinga feathers.) Interesting note my friend. Lots to think about...

[@themazamen]

In the case of Dave Whitlock, here is an excerpt from his own article on the RFS: When I first began tying soft, fur-bodied nymphs (back in the 60's) I was most influenced by the flies tied and fished by Thom Green, Ted Trueblood and Polly Rosborough. But I lacked the furs that they often recommended, such as otter, mink, seal, hare's ear and beaver. I substituted the gray and red fox squirrels, muskrat and rabbit that I could obtain locally, often from road kill.

[@SavageFlies]

See my full series from Dave Hughes "Essential Trout Flies" here: kzbin.info/aero/PLKgBFFHhdX5ZK4wr5fIaPM4uCcIBDSFAA

[@tannerpeavy3356]

Awesome!

[@edsauer2889]

Very nice tie and excellent instruction.Thanks! I can see this being tied in a myriad of colors. I'm heading to the vice to work on this one...definitely black for Little Black Stonefly. HOWEVER...mink tail? Why? Gotta be a more common material. Thanks again; subscribed.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Ed! I have no idea why the creator used mink on this one. It is a fairly unique material though, and I can't think of much that behaves exactly as it does. But still, fine deer hair would be fine for this thing!

[@jeffreystone7327]

Very attractive fly. The Mink and the Dunn are so silky looking. Great appearance. Thanks for the tip on stacking the Mink. Never dreamed that a material would be that easy to accidentally pull out after stacking it. Matt is there a material that you don’t have on hand? I also can’t imagine how many flies you actually have? Thanks for a great video.

[@edwardchavez5627]

I like it very much. By the way what are the rotary vice giveaway results? I'm excited to see who won.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks! I'll do the drawing Wednesday. I just got off a river in Idaho and went be home for a couple more days.

[@edwardchavez5627]

@@SavageFlies so how was the fishing in Idaho maybe you can post some pictures please.

[@SavageFlies]

It was great! I'll definitely post some pictures in an upcoming video. I didn't get many fish pictures while on the rafts but one of the guides will email me some in the next week or so. 😁

[@chadmann2724]

wait so people don't find mink tails drifting down the road???

[@SavageFlies]

Hahaha! You know, I don't even know where minks live in the wild. It's got to be somewhere but I've never seen any down here in western Maryland. :-)

[@martyrothman3933]

You said what is that in there it's funny when I'm done tying it I say what is that :-) :-) :-)

[@SavageFlies]

Ha! I've said that plenty of times too. :-)

[@martyrothman3933]

There are so many different ones so much different material for a new guy like me it gets real confusing