The original CDC Black Caddis was tied by David Dill, a former Montana Highway Patrol captain who turned to his passions for fly fishing and fly tying upon retirement from the force. Dill’s fly was designed to imitate the caddisfly species that hatch in the riffles of Montana’s Bighorn River. By adding the trailing shuck from Craig Mathews’s X-Caddis, you get a hybrid fly that works great in shallow-water riffles.
In this week’s video from Tightline Productions, author and blogger Matt Grobert walks you through the process of tying a Bighorn CDC X-Caddis. There are just three materials on the hook, and the key is controlling those materials to create a sparse shuck and thin, tapered body. I like the way Grobert tweaks the dubbing to make it easier to create the fly’s body.
And if you’ve got the bandwidth, make sure watch Tim’s videos in full 4K resolution. You’ve never seen fly tying look so good.
Bighorn CDC X-Caddis
Hook: Standard dry-fly hook (here, a TMC100), size 18.
Thread: Black, 6/0 or 140-denier.
Trailing shuck: Amber Zelon.
Body: Gray-olive Superfine dubbing.
Wing/head: Medium dun CDC feathers.
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