The challenge thread!

[Jaydub 0]

Next up: Corn Fed Caddis

[Trouttramp 0]

41 minutes ago, Jaydub said:

Next up: Corn Fed Caddis

Nicely done roach.  
 

[Fruitrollup 0]

I will give the CFC a try.

[Fruitrollup 0]

Corn Fed Caddis

• Hook: Standard Dry Fly Hook, Size 14
• Thread: Grey Brown 70DN
• Shuck: Tan Antron
• Body: Fine Tan/Brown Blend Dubbing
• Wing: 2 CDC Puffs, Medium Dun
• Sighter: Poly Yarn, Orange
• Hackle: CDC, Medium Dun

Next Up: Iron Lotus

[flytire 0]

to keep this challenge thread moving along i'll do the iron lotus

[flytire 0]

 

Iron Lotus

Lance Egan

Hook - Jig style

Bead - Brass or tungsten

Weight - Lead free wire

Thread - Your choice of color

Tail - Coq de Leon fibers

Ribbing - White thread

Body - Tying thread

Wing case - Black thin skin or black tinsel

Thorax - Ice dubbing

Collar - Hot orange thread

[flytire 0]

next challenge fly will be....."Light Cahill Wet Fly"

 

[Fruitrollup 0]

1 hour ago, flytire said:

Iron Lotus

Nicely tied. 

[flytire 0]

thanks

 

[niveker 0]

3 hours ago, flytire said:

Iron Lotus

👍

2 hours ago, flytire said:

next challenge fly will be....."Light Cahill Wet Fly"

I'll take it on this rainy day.  

[niveker 0]

Light Cahill Wet

Hook - #14, 2xst, 1xsh

Thread - 8/0, camel

Tail - Wood duck

Rib - 1 strand DMC gold thread

Body - Cream rabbit

Wing - Wood duck

Hackle - Cream India hen

Quick historical synopsis on the FOAL site:

 https://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/oldflies/part235.php

Cahills
The Rest of the Story

By Gerald E. Wolfe (RW)

When the lightning bolt of fame, if not fortune, struck Dan Cahill of Port Jervis, N.Y. back in 1884, it only left him a footnote in the annals of fly fishing history. I guess that's enough if the story is still being told 120 years later.

When Dan wasn't fishing or tying flies he was a brakeman on the old Erie and Lackawana Railroad. One steamy, hot summer day in the Catskills, Dan was working a Lackawana freight north of Port Jervis. On board were can of big brood stock rainbow trout, presumably headed for the Caledonia fish hatchery in upstate New York. When his own train was blocked by a derailed work train, Cahill knew the trout would never make it in the mid-summer heat.

Taking action quickly, Dan talked his fellow crew members into helping him carry the heavy can of trout back to Calicoon Creek and dump them. It was almost a mile, but the big rainbows not only survived the ordeal, they flourished in the little Catskill stream, and that unscheduled stocking and their offspring eventually spread throughout the Delaware watershed.

Rainbows were later stocked in the Esopus and other Catskill streams of the Hudson River drainage. To this day their ancestors provide the finest rainbow trout fishing in the east.

...

Cahill's real claim to fame, though, was his creation of the Cahill fly. Ray Bergman author of the best selling Trout in 1938, said of the Light Cahill, "If it was necessary to confine my assortment of flies to only two or three, this would be one of them." Strong words from the man who wrote the definitive work on trout up until that time.

"It is an eastern pattern," Bergman added, "particularly effective in the Catskill waters and similar eastern mountain streams." Be he further added that it served him well in Michigan in the Mid-west and Wyoming and California in the Far West.

Art Flick, of Westkill N.Y., in his famous little Stream Guide to Natural and Their Imitations, said of the Light Cahill, "To this date I have never met a fisherman who had fished any stream where trout could not be taken on this fly. It is doubtful if any fly compares with it in popularity, especially in the East."

The Cahill regular, or Dark Cahill as it is most often tied, was probably the fly that Dan originally created. It was a "particularly killing fly" for brook trout according to Bergman.

...

History credits Theodore Gordon with starting the Cahill flies on their journey to become one of the most prominent wet and dry fly combination in history. Dan Cahill, himself, is credited with creating a lighter version of the fly, but apparently the split between the dark and light version originated in Gordon's vise.

William Chandler, who tied for the venerable William Mills and Sons of New York City, tied an even lighter version that was to remain the standard dressing for decades. Not to be denied, Rube Cross, another famous Catskill fly tier, got into the act by tying a pattern with an almost white body.

Presently, the Dark Cahill remains almost like the original, while its more famous partner keeps changing and evolving into mixtures of cream, yellow and white.

The Cahills imitate a family of mayflies, Stenonema. They begin hatching in late May and continue through June, while similar light flies emerge sporadically throughout the summer. As one write put it, "they have a long shelf life." The Cahill is "hatch specific" and the naturals emerge from late afternoon through the evening. On overcast days there may be an occasional morning hatch.

...

[niveker 0]

I'll stay with the classic wet fly theme, next challenge fly:

Adams Wet Fly

[Northcaddis 0]

I will attempt the Adams wet fly , great fly in any of its forms. 

[Northcaddis 0]

Hook- mustad 3906b #10 

Tail- grizzly and brown hackle fibers 

body- grey hares ear dubbing 

Wing- grizzly saddle hackle tips ( I used 2 and married them together) 

collar- grizzly hackle 

My photo makes the fly look worse than what it is ….. and I need new head cement it looks like or thin it out .  The next fly I would like to see dragon fly gomphus. 

[niveker 0]

11 hours ago, Northcaddis said:

Adams wet fly

👍