Got A Suggestion - Customizing A Simple Nymph

[mic]

Dear Tiers... You may have seen my other threads on simple nymphs.  I had luck on a tough day with a plain peacock hurl nymph so I tied some up with a permanent spot in my box.  I think I would like to tie some up with CDC.  Got suggestions? 

I was thinking about making a collar like a wet fly or a dubbing loop collar. 

Anyway... would like to hear your thoughts.    

[fishinwrench]

Hans Wilenmann's CDC & Elk gained a permanent spot in my box......as soon as I figured out to stop trying to fish it as a dry fly.    

 

Fish that sucker sub-surface on the swing.  👍

[jdmidwest]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Hans Wilenmann's CDC & Elk gained a permanent spot in my box......as soon as I figured out to stop trying to fish it as a dry fly.    

 

Fish that sucker sub-surface on the swing.  👍

Then its just a mini muddler without the tail....

[tjm]

8 hours ago, mic said:

Got suggestions? 

I'd ditch the CDC, if it was me.  Grouse, quail,  and other upland birds have worked perfectly on simple subsurface flies for hundreds of years. The  title of that book was "Simple Flies"  and the only thing wrong with that book is he listed 52 patterns and to keep it simple no one needs that many patterns. 10-12 simple patterns in suggestive styles will catch all the fish you can carry any where. You can put legs on that herl nymph by tying three turns of any soft hackle or by tying in a beard/throat of hackle fibers. You can tie in two microfibetts (paint brush bristle) for tails, wrap half the herl body and at that point tie in a small wing of hackle fibers  (half the shank length and slanted back in wet fly fashion) then wrap the rest of the body. Or you can tie the whole herl body and but stop about two eye lengths back from the  eye and tie in a collar of black  ostrich herl.  That's five variations on the simple herl body nymph. You can also leave out any weight and use a cock hackle to palmer over a full herl body. Grizzly or any shade of dun works for me, now that simple herl body is a dry fly.

You can also use an eraser to strip all the fuzz off a couple of peacock herl then tie all the above with the stripped herl. I think those are called "quill body".

I think CDC is best used in complicated dries that require special floatants, as used in the EU. A few years ago Marc Petitjean made CDC very popular, but he sold the stuff and had a whole line of specialty tools that he sold so that you could use it in dubbing loops to tie his patterns. They work but they ain't magic and they ain't simple. He sold the stuff so well that others wanted in on the profits and pushed other uses of CDC that they could sell. If you are a duck hunter save all that CDC and sell it. The breast and flank feathers are better suited to flies and if you tie tradition dries you may want  to keep a pair of matched wings for quill slip  wings. As they say on the internet; "just my opinion."

@fishinwrench I think if you leave the CDC off that fly in the image that it will fish as a dry. I tie thread bodies with simple hair wings that fish in the surface film. It's my thought that the CDC gets soaked and sinks the fly. Fishing it wet though is a good solution too.  Any time my dry, whatever it is doesn't catch I tuck cast it up and across and/or jerk the fly under to let it drift to a swing position the swing it as a wet. Easier than changing flies and it's caught a lot of fish over the years.

[Gavin]

A bit of CDC is a good addition on a soft hackle, or EHC. It traps air bubbles and creates flash when you pull it under, kinda like Gary Lafontaine’s sparkle pupa.

[fishinwrench]

I don't know but I've been told......CDC needs to be used NATURAL. 

Once it has been bleached or dyed it looses most of the properties that it is famous for.    

[tjm]

:

It looses the oil, almost any natural material from fly tying sources has been washed enough to remove natural oils,  but the thing that makes CDC different (according to the guys on a fly tying forum that think it wonderful) is that it has a network of tiny fibers that trap air and cause it to float, as @Gavinsaid,  until they don't, the they need special drying and special floatant. Apparently they don't do well with standard floatants. I think it was also said that you can cut CDC without damaging it's feather characteristics. And the puffs are slightly different than the feathers but it's not simple.

There are yarns that give the Lafontaine look, Needloft plastic canvas yarn might be closest to what he used.

Mylar tinsel puts some flash in wet flies with out much complication and using Sulky Holoshimmer thread can give an interesting look.

Where does simple end?

[tjm]

2 hours ago, Gavin said:

A bit of CDC is a good addition on a soft hackle, or EHC.

So, you  are saying the CDC & Elk is meant to be a wet fly? pulled under?

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

So, you  are saying the CDC & Elk is meant to be a wet fly? pulled under?

I don't think it was meant to be, but here in Missouri I believe it is.   

I'm not too sure that we have "honest-to-god Caddis hatches" here.  Not fishable ones anyway.   Maybe I've just never been on a MO river at the right time.     

Seen it in Arkansas, and in Wisconsin, but the caddis hatches I've seen here in MO are nothing comparable to those.  

[jdmidwest]

We have caddis hatches along the upper Current River all the time.

Mo fly anglers like to drag the dry fly types under, crackle back comes to mind.  I think it's a local thing.