Jump to content
Fly Tying

niveker

core_group_3
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    4,279

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by niveker

  2. Posted · Report reply

    IMG20240519064810d.jpg

    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.

    ...

  10. Posted · Report reply

    IMHO - any weighted, sleek, smooth/hard-bodied nymph pattern designed to sink quickly is a perdigon.  So yes, that would qualify.  A purist might say you should thin out the tail to just a few fibers and add a black or dark wing case.  I don't think what you use to coat the fly matters, I doubt UV resin was widely used, if at all, by fly tyers when the pattern was first developed.  

    But, I'm not running the swap, so there's that.    

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Finally got a bit of time on the vise last night

    1717764052-IMG20240508081608c.jpg

    Bead Thorax Pheasant Tail

    Hook: #14/16

    Thorax: 2 amber glass beads, 12/0

    Thread: black, 8/0

    Rib: fine copper wire

    Tail/Body: pheasant tail fibers 

    Legs: pheasant body feather

    Beads coated with UV.  

     

  23. Posted · Report reply

    As always, well said Mr Deck. 

    My Son serves, as does my Son-in-law.  My Dad did, my Brothers-in law did, one a career Navy man, the other two tours in Iraq. 

    I have never served, so I can't make a judgement on those who may dislike hearing my gratitude for their service, but it is certainly not an attitude I understand. 

    I remember the first time a stranger, an elderly man, came up to my son and shook his hand, thanking him for his service.   My son was certainly appreciative.  The memory still brings tears of pride to my eyes.  

  25. Posted · Report reply

    14 hours ago, DFoster said:

    I’m sure you agree totality was spectacular.

    Thanks Dean.

    Indeed, I'm glad my son was so into it or I would have shrugged it off.  Was a great time all around.  

     

×
×
  • Create New...