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PeachySteph

Alternatives?

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I was looking to make a light cahill, but I don't have some of the materials listed for it. Are there other alternative materials that will serve the purpose just as well for this dry fly?

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Steph, for many fly patterns, there can be alternative materials that will serve the purpose. Will really depend on which materials you need.

 

Since it's a dry fly, the dubbing should be something that doesn't absorb water readily. There are various types of dubbing that will serve this purpose.

 

The hackle & wings are what they are, but you could change the style a bit & still produce a fly that will serve the purpose. For example, a wing of calf body could be used instead of duck hackle wings. This is often done with parachute type dries. The body hackle could be omitted as in the Swisher/Richards No Hackle style, but if tying a Catskill style then you'll need a good quality dry fly hackle.

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What style of fly are you tying Steph? Catskill dry or Comparadun... parachute?

 

Materials can always be substituted anytime but if you have a natural that you are trying to imitate, then use the natural (fly - bug) to guide you as far as what materials, what colors, and the size of fly to tie - if you're tying to imitate a natural. Material substitution is up to you as far as if you want to do so - if you're just trying to tie a fly to fish, substitute to 'make do' and fish them.

 

But if you are trying to produce an exact fly to an old traditional recipe, then get the right materials (i.e. like those Salmon fly types of ties). Some people are more sensitive than others as far as if someone ties something and calls it a ___________ and it doesn't have the exact materials. But I suspect many here tie variants of original recipes.

 

It's really up to you.

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Dry fly dubbing for mayflies is a fine dubbing. The color should be the color of the adult abdomen that faces down toward the water surface. It may be a lighter color than the color that we see on the top of the fly which faces AWAY from the fish.

 

When desperate, even a sewing thread or floss body of the correct color can be used. Taper the body using the thread/floss.

 

If you have the right kind of deer or elk hair, I would tie a sparkle dun or a compardun. The pattern is highly effective and does not require expensive hackle.

 

http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/video-how-to-tie-a-cream-cahill-sparkle-dun/

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The most important thing is the color. Brand of dubbing is unimportant. Some light cream or another will be fine. Many synthetic yarns will shred up into dubbing and work fine. Tail and wings are traditionally wood duck flank, but mallard would work, or you could use light colored elk hair. The hackle used is also a light cream, and it should be a good dry fly hackle.

 

You can make a no hackle Cahill comparadun with a light cream body, and light deer hair for the wing and tail. No hackle necessary.

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Ya know, I have a couple of Cock necks from Wapsi, there are plenty of feathers on there in the 14-16 size range and even 18-some 20's. Not a bad value, inexpensive but usable which is not always the case with inexpensive dry hackle.

 

Dubbing and or thread are both cheap enough. If I had only light ginger hackle, which I always do have, then I would use that as a substitute in trying to imitate a light cahil type hatch. Course where I fish doesn't support a light cahil hatch but one never knows. Lots of flies use the ginger hackle up here in the NE but even then sometimes I mix ginger and Grizzly or just use Grizzly. Guess what ? I catch fish !. I swear you can dub in Grizzly hackle into any dry pattern and most wets. So I keep grizzly, Brown , coachman Brown, light and dark Ginger, Blue Dunn. That's it and if I had to tie up something Light Cahil-ish, then I would do that and the hackle woud be some combination or the other of the above. Bet the result catches fish .

 

Dubbing, cream dubbing, if all you have or can get is rabbit, then soak the sucker in fly floatant and go fishing. Did you know you can use sewing thread for a body ? Ya, it works. It's a bit course, the fish doesn't care. The naturals have segmented bodies anyway. Soak that in floatant too ( the cream sewing thread body, not the fish or the natural fly, lol)..

 

Tail fibers, something light. Even light deer hair. I'd say elk but that tends to break off after a couple of fish.. But hey, it got you a couple of fish.

 

I don't tie in upright feather wings anymore. I use some mallard fibers, Poly or Antron yarn, calves tail hair. But I don't do matched feathers any more, and I rarely even separate the upright wing. I really like antron yarn upright wing ( I won't say wings cause I said I don't split it).tie that in to the rear, flip it up, wrap a bump in the front of the stack. Cut the back end at an angle, It forms the taper for your body when you wrap the body. It's easy , it's effective, it sheds water, and I can see it on the water. Plus I have rolls of white antron yarn lol.

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I often change styles in order to accommodate what I have on hand. There are many ways to vary wings and stay more or less within the pale of a pattern, as has been suggested above.

I like goose and turkey biots for bodies rather than traditional dubbing in my dry flies. You can get them in colors called for in a variety of patterns, or color them yourself. I also favor CDC (right now) for wing material, and use it as well for hackle.

I mix my own dubbing using angora wool skeins or synthetic yarns from knitting stores. It does fine when treated with a water proofing solution such as water shed (I use that). When I use my angora mixes, I try to dub sparsely and definitely apply the water shed because even though it is light (thin fibers have hollow core) and wispy which makes it ideal for dubbing, it is still a rabbit fur which isn't so hot for drys; that said - my flies have floated just fine. Advantage of mixing own dubbing is that I can create as fine or "stickly - buggy" a material as I want for a smooth body or prickly body, and by create any color by mixing the basic prime colors. I can easily mix dubbing for sulphurs, cahills, hoppers to achieve any color I need by mixing yellow, white, orange, red (any combination of two or more of those).

I use a cheap coffee grinder to mix them up. dice up the yarn strands 1/4" or less and toss them in, grind 'em up. For a buggy look, dice them longer and use stiffer material, like nylon vs angora yarn. Toss in some hare's mask or fox squirrel fur with it.

I'm just a crafty person so I look for ways to tailor and adapt fly patterns to be more fun for me. Yes, they are all on-water tested and fish approved ...

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If you're going to buy goose or turkey biots, you might as well buy dubbing. I think Steph is trying to avoid putting a lot of money into a burgeoning hobby she's not sure of yet. Of course, if she's knows a turkey hunter, a couple of primary wing feathers will work just fine, and a Sharpie will make them very versatile.

 

For the record, I'm also from GA, and don't think I've ever seen a Cahill hatch. I thought they were a NE fly, but I'm no entomologist. I tie them because I like tying different flies, but I've never caught a single trout on a Cahill. Were I interested only in catching fish, I'd stick to Wooly Buggers or Wooly Worms. Not only are they easy to tie, they work really well. And you can get materials at about any fabric store. Fly shops are few and far between in GA.

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Biot bodies are cool ! Although I tend to associate them with darker flies than the Light Cahil. BWO and March Browns ( typical early hatches up here in the NE) for instance. But ya, why not if you can get the light colored biots, it would make for one cool looking variant.

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The Light Cahill fly was meant to imitate the dun stage of Stenacron interpuctatum (formerly Stenonema canadense) and, to a lesser degree Maccaffertium vicarium (formerly Stenonema vicarium and S. fuscum.) The important thing isn't the Latin names, but the size and appearance of the insects. You can Google pictures of the bugs or, better yet, capture a few from your local streams. Then use the materials available to you to match the size and colouration. Other members have given you many suggestions for material replacement. But if possible, match the insect- not the pattern. (As much as I love to tye the Catskill flies, lemon wood duck is a pretty poor imitation of the natural's wings. Especially at the cost!)

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I don't know about wings so much, I'm much the non traditionalist about wing materials. I find more important to the fish is body and tail profile. Then light medium or dark coloration as needed. The boys and I were into a specatcular BWO hatch one year in Maine and no BWO's to fish with. My son devised a pattern out of materials we had with us. He caught one fish after another in size 16. He had tied the tails from Elk hair though. As soon as the tails got broken off, no more fish rose to his fly. I'm not sure he even put wings on those flies ! I fished nymphs but he outfished us all with those size 16 dry's he tied, Even if they weren't so durable, good enough in a pinch.

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