Fly Tying a Spent Wing CDC Caddis (Dry Fly Pattern)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- From the Federation of Fly Fishers "Fly Pattern Encyclopedia," this is an easy-to-tie spent wing pattern. The techniques in this tie can be used in many other spinner patterns.
Hook: #12-16 dry fly
Thread: Tan, or to match your caddis flies
Body: CDC, palmered
Rib: Tying thread
Wings: Mottled hen saddle feather
Hackle: Ginger dry fly
Antenna: Stripped quills of wings
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** Some of the other popular books used on this channel: **
Dave Hughes, "Essential Trout Flies," 2017, amzn.to/3lbCZYX
Dave Hughes, "Wet Flies," 2015, amzn.to/33ac3lQ
John Shewey, "Classic Steelhead Flies," 2015, amzn.to/2RywHcP
David Klausmeyer's "Favorite Flies," 2020, amzn.to/3oeSNMa
Morgan Lyle's "Simple Flies," 2015, amzn.to/3qB1zW1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: amzn.to/34U0rUe
Mike Valla's "Tying the Founding Flies," 2015, amzn.to/354oSir
Mike Valla's "Classic Streamer Fly Box," 2020, amzn.to/3n3Vakf
Randle Scott Stetzer's "Flies, the Best One Thousand," 1992, amzn.to/34Q15mp
Terry Hellekson's "Popular Fly Patterns," 1976, amzn.to/2L4IyvS
Dick Stewart's, "Flies for Bass and Panfish," 1992, amzn.to/3aGpFs1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: amzn.to/34U0rUe
Savage Flies is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River. I've been uploading three new tying videos a week, with the occasional extra video on other days.
Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know in the comments if you have any tying tips you would like to share or if you have any patterns you would like to see tied here.
Good morning Matt,
I enjoy CDC amazing material. Love how that bug looks and what a fun test tank! Back home and only got in about four hours fishing. Not even a bump Jim 0 fish 100 🤣🤣🤣
But my granddaughter is amazing wonderful time and plenty of it👍☕️☕️
That's awesome to hear Jim. Not the zero fish, but the quality time with your granddaughter. :-)
@@SavageFlies I did fish a lake this afternoon. First cast large sunfish on the #14 purple steamer 👍
And yes my granddaughter is amazing 👍👍
Great looking caddis pattern. I just ordered my copy of "Federation of Fly Fishers"...you finally convinced me. 😂
The bass fly would perform perfectly if you tie the eyes on the top and the wing as a collar on the bottom...it would ride with the hook point up. Or tie it like your last one on an upturned eye hook. Just thought I would throw my two cents in. Lol
Thanks for all you do Mr O'Neal.
I didn't even think how the up vs. down eye would affect it in the water but I'm sure you're right. I tell you though, if I tie that bass streamer again, I'd probably use a single brass bead and call it done. And... I'm glad to see you ordered the FFF encyclopedia. I tell you, I've gotten more inspiration out of that thing than almost any other book I own. (And I have so many books I'm scared to count them. :-) )
@@SavageFlies funny thing, when you have been tying for decades like we have, we really are only scared if our wives find out how many books and materials we have. Lol
Neat pattern. CDC is something I like using on most of my nymphs. But this pattern makes me believe that it won’t cast that well due to how the wings are positioned. But there’s only one way to find out. Great tie as always Matt.
I worry about that too Tim, but I've seen enough of these spinners with splayed wings that they must be fishable! I think I'm going to give it a try this fall here in Maryland. :-)
I purchased some wing burners a while back and haven't used them much. This looks like a good pattern to use them for, and besides I have a few more spaces in my dry box I should fill!
That's a great idea David! I bought some too and haven't gotten around to using them yet. I think I bought the set, three sizes each of caddis, mayflies and stonefly wings. They look pretty complicated but apparently you can take some standard, cheap hen feathers and turn them into some cool looking wings. You've inspired me to break them out and give it a try. :-)
Another good pattern.I never was a good dry fly fisher but fished cripples and emerges during a hatch and caught as many or more than anyone fishing dries.
Sometimes emergers are the only thing you can buy a strike on! I still stick with dries if I think I can fool something but that's not always the case. :-)
Good Morning Sir Matt, great video, I always like a challenge and this spent CDC Caddis is one to me. I will give it a shot this evening after work. The fly it self looks supercool. Thanks thanks for the extended video very instructional and that's always a great help. 😊👍
Appreciate it Edward! I know you've tied some spent wing flies before though. Didn't you do one with wally wings a while back?
@@SavageFlies yes Sir
Great tie Matt. This is my favorite fall dry fly. I've caught countless trout on this pattern. Thanks for sharing
Awesome to hear Layton. I've never fished any dry flies with this significantly splayed out wings. Do they ever cause your tippet to spin into a big mess? And I could see myself getting those antenna all snagged and end up snipping them off. :-)
@@SavageFlies I don't fish it with the antenna and I do get it landing upside-down.
Thanks for another great one Matt and the learning continues
Glad you enjoyed it Marty! Always appreciate it my friend. :-)
Another cool fly with great instructions! I just bought a fresh pack of cdc yesterday, you bet I'll be tying one of these. Also I personally don't mind the bubbles in the showing tank, I was too enamored with the dancing lures to notice em. :) very cool of you to set that up for the visual though, thank you!
You bet Jeroba, I appreciate the kind words my friend. And yeah, that tank is kind of helpful for streamers, but I think the water is moving too fast for wets or nymphs. And if I want to test a dry fly, I just fill a sink with water and drop it on top. :-)
This is a good one. Looks like the perfect thing to fool the picky ones. Better yet, I tied two and they actually look like yours.
Ha! I wouldn't brag about them looking like mine!! I tie plenty of shaggy looking flies. :-) But thanks for the note my friend.
Nice pattern. Thanks again, Matt. Always enjoy your videos.
Great job Matt! I need to buy more Fly Boxes if I keep watching these videos!!
I laugh at this comment as I look over on my loveseat beside my bench. I just cleaned out my fishing bag and I've got nine full fly boxes sitting there. I just counted them. I think it's time I make another donation to one of the clubs around here. :-)
This is such a cool fly! Excited to tie some!
Good looking tie , thanks Matt. Tight lines.
Have seen this pattern but never tied or fished it. Thanks Matt for the great tutorial (as usual). Will definitely give this one a shot. I thought your test tank video served its purpose. Guess I’m more of a function guy anyway. Continued blessings my friend.
Thank you Mark; I appreciate the kind words my friend. :-)
Catching up on UA-cam, thanks for sharing Matt.
Always glad to see your comments here Lee. Have a great weekend my friend. :-)
Nice fly Matt. I guess one of these days I'm going to have to buy some CDC feathers. Keep the good stuff coming.
They are a pretty unique feather. They're greasy enough to be mostly water repellent, but not stiff at all. Kind of like a thin wispy dry fly feather.
Great tie cool looking fly Matt. Thanks for sharing.
I knew it! With the bumb bell eyes talk. Always flips hook up with eyes tied as you did. Still a good pattern Matt
Appreciate it Keith! Honestly, I'll probably never fish this thing, and if I wanted to tie a couple more, I'd probably just use a single brass bead instead of the dumbbell eyes.
That is one slick fly!! Well Done!!
Appreciate it Bob!
Nice silhouette but maybe prone to twist when casting.
Re: the tank test. If you put the tippet wing on the hook point side, the fly should consistently ride hook point up. It might even act as a weed guard.
Good tip, but how long do you think the feather would last on the underside of the hook? I have no idea, and trying to recall from memory here, but it seems like a lot of flies meant to ride upside down like that are bucktail wings or something like craft fur which is probably more durable than a pheasant tippet.
Love dry flies. I’ve never tied this one either. Looking forward to tying this one. Thx Matt!🙂
Awesome Clyde; good luck man!
Very cool pattern Matt.great job tying.will have to put few in my box.thanks for the video!!.
Appreciate it Mike!
Real cool pattern. 😎
Cool pattern. Thanks Matt.
Good stuff, as always 👍
awesome matt . thanks see ya joe
Great looking caddis Matt.If you have a Petitjean magic tool,this is a great fly to split your thread and make use of the magic tool.We tie a lot with cdc, we never trim it with sisors,use your thumb and fore finger pinch and break the fibers with your other hand looks much better.Hey Matt I thought it would flip upside,I didn't say nothing.Tell you what it did better than I thought.We went to Your first video.You have done a great job.Let's see 10,000.Have a great week Matt. Ken
Ha! Thanks Ken. My first videos were certainly a work in progress. I've still got a long way to go but I'll get there. About the Pettitjean tool... I've seen them before but never tried one. I might have to give it a shot, but if I recall, they were kind of expensive. Thanks for all your support my friends. :-)
Great fly and thanks for testing the bass fly.
You bet Darrell. You know, I should probably test the flies before I record a video, but that ends up being a lot of work and sometimes I'm still recording past my bedtime. :-)
@@SavageFlies no problem and I understand. I tie a lot of saltwater flies and the barbell and bead chain eyes are used to present the fly hook up for redfish. But having that tester looks like a great tool.
Awesome pattern, thanks matt
Appreciate it Rocky!
Enjoy you very much. You have a great channel. Thanks... KANSAS
Appreciate it Jack!
Matt sweet pattern..just got into the fly fishing..i instantly fell in love with it..now im taking up fly tying..i was wondering what type of fly tying vise would you recommend for a beginner..thanks for all that u do..ive learned alot
Josh- welcome to the sport my friend! One I often recommend for new tiers is the Maxcatch. amzn.to/3lAAl27 and reviewed here: ua-cam.com/video/zyPGY7JKe_M/v-deo.html
Or even the Supreme which you can see in this video: ua-cam.com/video/ceXoNDKtYdg/v-deo.html
Nice tie Matt. Cool pattern, I wonder if the wings spin the fly on the cast. I've read fan wings do that, I haven't fished them. Does CDC really feel greasy? I finally picked up a pack at a shop after it caught my glance but have yet to open the pack - bunch of small feathers. I never really looked for them either, even though it's part of my favorite emerger pattern, T. Rosenbauer's Snowshoe Emerger. That pattern was in an old Orvis News Letter I found or was mailed to me. I'd never heard of CDC or had any scud hooks. I did have Eagle Claw L042 hooks (similar to Mustad C49S) and a grizzly dry fly cape. So that's what I used and it caught lots of browns. Maybe the ss rabbit's foot wing was key along with grizzly hackle, or the peacock and hare's ear I used for the body, but the hooks shape allowed a long platform to tie the emerging part and the wide gape kept the shuck part below the film. You should try tying the original if you haven't already.
I don't think those swim tanks do justice to a pattern's action. The Boss, Comet, and the Whistler all have lighter bead chain eyes on top. Or maybe that TW is supposed to flip like that when fished in a lake. Just a thought, thanks for all the work you do for us. :o)
Snowshoe Rabbit feet... now that's a material with it's own unique properties. I've always had a tough time tying with it as the hairs are all so short. But they can certainly make a buggy and buoyant fly. I'm no expert in CDC, but I know it stands for Cul de Canard which is French for "Butt of the duck" feather. Of course I just double checked that on Google translate and they say it translates to "duck ass." But anyway, I've heard that ducks have oil glands down there that make these feathers more water repellent. I think you can sort of tell they're a little greasy, at least a little more than something like a short marabou feather, but it's not all that noticeable.
As for the question, do these wings cause spin? I don't know but I'm thinking they would be more likely too. I do fish a King's River Caddis often, but that's a tent-wing caddis and not these splayed out "spent" ones. Anyway, if you get this thing out on the water, let us know how it does!
I like it, I think it's a personal thing but I'm more comfortable splitting thread and using both sides of the CDC. I fell like it's tougher and less bulk in the body. But I like what you did👍👍
I like your method Thomas but I mess that up more often than not. I even got this tool to try and put feathers in it, folded over, and then put them in a clip before snipping the stem out. And man, I hardly ever get this right. Do you use something like this? www.jsflyfishing.com/hareline-feather-prepper
That's a cool looking caddis fly Matt
Looks easy to tie, will definitely have to try this one out
Thanks for the video and answering my questions about the bass bug
Have you ever thought about making a video of you fishing
Thanks Dave! I have made a few fishing videos, but I've decided that if I ever start making them for UA-cam, I'd probably start a different channel for them. I plan to keep Savage Flies only about tying. Maybe someday I'll have a sister channel called Savage Fishing. :-)
Hi Matt. Nice to see an alternative method to the dubbing loop. We woke up to white ground here this morning. Not sure why but the only ones excited about were my grandchildren. Hopefully we don’t see anymore for at least a month. You said you don’t use the test tank for videos but do you use it much for testing your fishing flies? Thanks Matt and take care.
Ahhh... kids and snow. The first snow of the year always makes me feel like a kid again too. But then the second or third one, or the first one where I have to break out the snow blower and it's no longer as fun. One good thing about a snow day, my local trout waters aren't very crowded. :-)
Hi Matt, very delicate pattern. What do you think if you tie the whip finish under the antennas to preserve the upright position?
Oh, I didn't even think of trying that. You might be able to get away with that, but it might prop them up too much. Only one way to find out I guess. :-)
By the way where do you get the eyes
I believe I got these from my local Bass Pro shop, but you can get the exact same ones on Amazon: amzn.to/3lzPAYY
Nice pattern Matt. If possible I'd like to make a book recommendation, it's definitely worth a look" The Art of Fly Tying", plenty of patterns (dries/pike recipes), definitely a good book for the beginning tiers and advanced alike.
The book I have is a hard cover with a Royal Wolff on the cover
Excellent Jamie; I just ordered a copy. I'm glad you mentioned the cover as I've got a book also called "The Art of Fly Tying" but it was by Claude Chartrand. Also a pretty cool book, but I think this one you recommended by John Van Vliet looks pretty good.
@@SavageFliesGlad to hear you grabbed a copy, it is good book, it's the one that got me interested in tying, along with a fly tying show that used to air on PBS.
I think the water tank was fine, stripping will cause erratic actions anyway, the sideways action may just simulate a injured baitfish anyway. Just a thought.
Good point Lee. And injured baitfish is probably even more attractive to a big fish looking for an easy meal. :-)
Just started to tie my own flues been fly fishing for years. Never caught a trout lol. But have caught alot of bass, pike, and panfish. What are the easiest flies to tie for these types of fish?
Scott- sorry, I just saw this comment. Welcome to the channel my friend! Panfish will eat just about anything a trout will (or anything they can put in their mouth). For bass, you'll want to lean toward bigger streamers (for imitating baitfish) or big poppers or even patterns like frogs and mice. I've never fished for pike, but I hear you can use similar patterns as you would for bass. Mainly big streamers that look like they small fish they typically feed on.
Matt, do you have a general tread size/denier/ x/o that you tie with? I know you recommend UTC or Danville but I am wondering what are the most common size threads. Thanks again Sam
Hi Sam. I would say I use a 70 denier at least 80% of the time. That's fairly close to an 8/0 in most brands. If I need to go thicker, for maybe a big streamer or spinning deer hair, I'll go to at least a 140 denier, and sometimes a 210. Now if I want to go smaller than a 70d, I'll have to go back to the aughts and will typically drop it down to a 12/0 or even a 14/0. If you haven't seen this video yet, check it out. I explain a bit about thread stuff here: ua-cam.com/video/BS4PsqugmfY/v-deo.html
I have fished a lot of emergers, caddis and midges with cdc incorporated into them but have never taken on the task as a new tier to tie one myself. I was going to try using some of the cdc type fibers found in some of my hen hackles just to give it a go, or,do you think it best to use the actual cdc wing and get a feel for those instead?
I'd definitely pick up a pack of natural CDC. These feathers have a very unique property. Cul de Canard, which is french for "butt of the duck." Apparently ducks have oil glands that keep these feathers water repellent to keep their butts warm in cold water. Regular chickens may have some feathers with the same fiber density to these CDC feathers, but they won't have that oiliness to them.
Hmmm. So what do you use for a test tank do you use? I need to get something like that.
Ryan- this is the tank I have, but honestly I don't recommend it. www.jsflyfishing.com/flymen-fishing-fly-tester I can't ever get rid of the bubbles on the side of the inner tube, and the water is just way too fast. Maybe I haven't figured out how to work it yet, but there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the water speed. And it's a slight pain to set up.