Elk Hair Caddis

A dry fly, tied #12–20, carried year round. It is tied against 7 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — January–September. Al Troth, 1957.

A dry fly built to stay up: a hare's ear or tan dubbed body, a brown hackle palmered over it and ribbed with fine gold wire, a bleached elk hair wing with the tips over the bend, and the butt ends clipped square for a head. Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 12–20, tan 8/0 thread. Al Troth originated it in 1957. The palmered hackle means it floats through water that drowns everything else, and it can be dead drifted for a hatch or twitched and skated for egg-layers. Trout are the fish. It is tied against the Grannom, Brachycentrus spp., April–May at 48–58°F; the Green Sedge, Rhyacophila spp., May–August at 48–64°F; the Little Black Caddis, Chimarra atterima, April–May at 46–58°F; the Little Black Stonefly, Allocapnia or Capnia spp., January–April at 34–46°F; and the Spotted or Tan Caddis, Hydropsyche spp., May–August at 55–70°F — plus caddis generally, and as a searching pattern when nothing is hatching.

#12–20Hook size
dry flyType
AllSeason
7Hatches matched

What it looks like

A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 4 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 6 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.

A tent. The wing lies back over the body at a shallow angle and overhangs the bend, which is the resting posture of an adult caddis and nothing like a mayfly's upright wings. Drawn at #16 — 7.0 mm of shank and 3.5 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.

The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 12 will differ a little.

What it imitates

Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.

It is also tagged for caddis generally, no hatch at all — a searching pattern.

Tying recipe

In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades; Al Troth, 1957. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook	Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 12–20
Thread	Tan 8/0
Body	Hare's ear or tan dubbing
Hackle	Brown, palmered over the body and ribbed with fine gold wire
Wing	Bleached elk hair, tips over the bend
Head	Butt ends of the wing, clipped square

When to fish it

Dead drift for a hatch, twitched or skated for egg-layers. The palmered hackle means it will float through water that drowns everything else.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active january–september, in water from 34°F to 74°F.

Target species

Trout

Rivers it fishes well

Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.