Tie Talk: The Poly Caddis

Our resident fly guy, Jason Borger is here again. This time he weighs in with a slightly different twist on one of the most popular patterns of all time – the elk hair caddis.

In Jason’s words…

The Poly Caddis (see upper right fly in the photo) is one of my father’s old patterns from the 1970s (1972 if you want to be precise). The fly is a take-off on the classic Elk Hair Caddis (one of the all- time “greats” in trout fishing), but uses a synthetic, polypropylene wing to easily get different effects/colors (also makes it easy to tie in small sizes), and it also uses a trimmed X-Hackle for the legs (also a benefit in tiny sizes). Simple to tie, looks great, very effective. Nothing “special,” just a solid pattern that does what it is supposed to do.

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It can also be modified a bit further, using un-dyed sparkle yarn for the wing, to make a “diving caddis” (see the lower left fly in the photo). My father has also taken to bending the thorax region of the hook upward a few degrees to get the wing to lie back even flatter along the back of the fly. Play around as you see fit, it is an easy pattern to modify (indeed, that’s how it came about– as a modification of another pattern)._

Check out more of Jason’s work on his website. Instructions for this bug below – TR