Backcountry Notes

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The Spider-Legged Parachute Caddis and Little Yellow Stonehopper

If the names of these flies seem strange, it is appropriate: these are strange-looking flies. The tying of them is a step more difficult than the previous patterns in this feature, but only a small step that is readily overcome with practice.

The Spider-Legged Parachute Caddis is a simple improvement on the parachute caddis pattern that was briefly popular in the mid-eighties. The original parachute caddis had two faults. First and foremost, it featured a hackle proportionate to the hook size for mayfly imitations. Compared to mayflies, caddis flies are very "leggy" critters. Caddis have legs (and feelers) that are quite long in proportion to their body and wing sizes; mayflies have comparatively short legs and no feelers.

Secondly, the original parachute caddis pattern calls for a wing made of elk hair with the butt ends of the hair being turned upright and held in place by thread wraps. The hackle is wrapped around this structure and then tied off on the hook shank just behind the eye. This tying method causes the hackle to tilt forward, pushing the front part of the hackle into the water and raising the rear fibers above it. The result resembles a bug dancing in a little tutu and fails to inspire confidence in the user (and all too often, in the trout).

The dressing given here removes those faults. It is more durable and more accurately recreates the light pattern of a caddis that has alighted on the surface of the water. When caddis are abundant (and this is often the case on Virginia streams) I have had many very rewarding days with this pattern.

As a practical matter, there are only two necessary caddis patterns, "light" and "dark." The light pattern is tied with tan rabbit fur, light elk hair, light ginger hackle and tan thread. The dark pattern uses dark elk hair with gray rabbit fur, dun hackle, and gray thread. If you run across olive-bodied or brown-bodied specimens where you fish, alter the dark pattern to suit.

The Little Yellow Stonehopper is a color variation of the same fly. Originally it was intended to imitate the Little Yellow Stonefly. I happened to have some on hand one day on the Smith River when small "nymph" hoppers were evident.

Lacking a hopper pattern of suitable size, I pressed the "stonefly" into service. Several nice browns took the fly with the slashing, splashy strike that shows the fish are into grasshoppers. The re-christened "Little Yellow Stonehopper" has proven to be a reliable search pattern over many summers.

The Little Yellow Stonehopper is tied exactly like the Spider-Legged Parachute Caddis, with the following materials: body, yellow rabbit fur; wing, light elk; hackle, light ginger; thread, yellow.

In both cases, the flies are tied on standard-length, 1X-fine dry fly hooks. The usual sizes for the Caddis are 12, 14 and 16; for the Stonehopper, 12 and 14.

TYING INSTRUCTIONS

1. With the hook held in the vise, bind on the thread and cover the straight shank with a layer of thread. Coat the thread with head cement or thin superglue.

2. The thread should now be at the rear of the shank. Spin on the appropriate dubbing, form a dubbing loop, and cover the rear two-thirds of the shank to make the body. The dubbing can be a bit "buggy." It is not necessary to taper the body as for a mayfly.

3. Select a pinch of elk hair of the proper shade, even the tips, and tie the pinch on top of the shank directly in front of the body. The hair tips should be about even with the bend of the hook. Do NOT clip the butt ends of the hair.

4. The next step is the one that takes practice. The idea is to form a "hump" of elk hair that will be used to hold the hackle. Honest, it can be done with no additional tools, but the first time through, try this:

4A. Let the bobbin hang free. With your off hand, hold a bodkin point or needle in front of the hair butts so that the hair is held upright and the bodkin or needle is about 1/4-inch above the hook shank. Note: your "off' hand is your left hand, if you tie right-handed, or your right hand if you tie left-handed. Use your primary hand to fold the hair butts over the top of the bodkin/needle, pinching them to the top of the hook shank.

4B. Now remove the bodkin/needle and lay it down; with your off hand, loop the bobbin two or three times over the hair butts in front of the resulting hump (you must release the bobbin on each loop, let it hang under the fly, and pick it up again); and then with your off hand pull the bobbin downward and somewhat to the rear so that the thread loops slide between the hump of hair and the thumb and finger of your primary hand. You should now be able to release the pinch with your primary hand and transfer the bobbin.

5. Now use the thumb and forefinger of your off hand to hold the hump of hair firmly in place and take three turns of thread around the base of the hair hump only (not around the shank)! Again you have to release and re-grip the bobbin to do this. These thread wraps form the base on which the hackle will be wound.

5A. As an optional step, useful on larger sizes, you may bring the thread under the shank, up behind the hair hump, and take three turns in the opposite direction as compared to 5; then bring the thread again under-and-behind and take another turn in the original direction. This step helps to anchor the elk hair more securely.

5B. Work head cement or superglue over all of the thread windings made in step 5/5A. There may be small gaps in the windings on either side where you can see the original wraps covering the shank; place the cement or glue drops at those gaps and let them soak in momentarily before spreading. (The idea is to cement the thread windings firmly together so that the upright hair clump remains in place.) Clip the butt ends of the hair just behind the eye of the hook.

6. Select a hackle of the proper size and color; the hackle should be 6X to 8X long (for example, for a size 14 caddis, select a hackle that would normally be used for a size 8 mayfly-type dry fly). Snip off the fluffy base of the feather and then strip or cut the barbs from 1/4 inch of the bottom of the stem. Hold the feather against the fly so that the exposed stem points up and is next to the thread post and hair clump. The shiny side of the feather should be facing you. Bind the stem to the thread post in that position with two firm turns of thread and then secure the thread with a half-hitch at the same point.

7. To complete this next step it is helpful to use a bobbin rest that holds the thread up and away from the thread "post" on me base of the hair hump. The procedure can be done without a bobbin rest by draping the bobbin over the top of your primary hand, but that technique may be hard to master unless you've done it with a rest. If you don't have a bobbin rest with your vise, all you need is something slightly taller than the height of the fly to drape the thread over with the bobbin hanging free; a hardbound book will do fine.

7 A. With the bobbin rest positioned behind the vise and slightly to the front of the fly, hang the bobbin so that the hackle feather can be wound around the thread post in a level plane but passing under the working thread. To wind the hackle, hold it up so that it is level with the hook shank; wind it to the rear of the post and around behind; pass it under the thread; and bring it around the front of the post. Take two or three winds of hackle in this manner, but resist all temptations to take a fourth turn.

7B. Retrieve the bobbin with your primary hand while holding the tip of the hackle feather in your off hand. Shorten the working thread and carefully take a turn around the hackle feather, binding it to the hair clump above the turns taken in 7 A. Take two more turns to hold the hackle firmly in place and then take two half-hitches around the same position; cut the thread and baste the half-hitches with cement.

8. Once the cement is dry, use scissors or a razor to cut away the top of the hair hump (and the hackle stem and tip) just above the half-hitches. Leave about 1/16-inch of hair stubs above the thread. These stubs will flare because of the thread tension. Work a drop of cement or superglue into the top of the cut to hold things firmly in place.

9. As an optional step, once. the cement is dry you may put a drop of orange or chartreuse fluorescent lacquer on the flat top of the hair butts. This fly rides low on the surface of the water and the lacquer helps to keep track of it but is not evident to the fish.

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Originally published in the Clinch Valley Conservationist, Winter 1994