Car Top Caddis Pattern...

Volksnurse

Volksnurse

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While flipping through some fly tying books on google books I ran across a reference to "Car Top Caddis" fly...in Gary LaFontaine's The Dry Fly: New Angles. Can't seem to fine it anywhere else...which just made me more curious...

Can anyone shed any light on this, pics, recipes?

Thanks
 
It's a real good pattern! Im ALWAYS tying them I can never keep them in my box. You've seen it before. It's a caddis pattern you take off your line at the end of the day and instead of putting on your fly patch you put it on the roof of the Trangender Ecno Box and forget you left it there and you drive off. :lol:
 
Then I also have a ton of cartop sulphers, bwos and last week even a cartop fishing hat. Bastijes!
 
I'm lucky, I just make car top coffee cups.
Some info on the fly and originator here:
http://www.distinctlymontana.com/article/darwin-atkin-montana-fly-tying-legend
 
Thanks Mike! (Dan, not so much)
Looks worth a try...If I can get a decent pic I'll post it.
 
Volksnurse wrote:
Thanks Mike! (Dan, not so much)
Looks worth a try...If I can get a decent pic I'll post it.


Here - let me help you. :cool:
 

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LMAO....and he has the same hairdo as me!
 
From the book:
Hook 18-20 up-eye; standard weight
Thread color to match the body hair color
body and wing a clump of deer hair, the stubs are layed along the shank and wrapped down lengthtwise ; the tips of the clump form the wing.

Hope this help you.
Bill
 
whheff wrote:
From the book:
Hook 18-20 up-eye; standard weight
Thread color to match the body hair color
body and wing a clump of deer hair, the stubs are layed along the shank and wrapped down lengthtwise ; the tips of the clump form the wing.

Hope this help you.
Bill


I have to admit, that does not help me much. You fasten the butts near the bend or the eye? then let the tips be the "wings." What kind of wings? Surely someone can solve this mystery by photograph. I'll run a search.... no luck.
 
The first couple I tied with the recipe in the book looked closely related to large, barbless dust bunnies...It does seem similar to some of the down wing caddis patterns out there...My impression is that the whole thing is done with a clump of deer hair. Its the steps in tying that are vague...I think I'm just missing something simple...

At this point I'm just trying to assuage my OCD and come up with something bug like to throw at fish...If I can tie something not too embarrassing, I'll post pics.

JackM wrote:
whheff wrote:
From the book:
Hook 18-20 up-eye; standard weight
Thread color to match the body hair color
body and wing a clump of deer hair, the stubs are layed along the shank and wrapped down lengthtwise ; the tips of the clump form the wing.

Hope this help you.
Bill


I have to admit, that does not help me much. You fasten the butts near the bend or the eye? then let the tips be the "wings." What kind of wings? Surely someone can solve this mystery by photograph. I'll run a search.... no luck.
 
I did not see a picture of the pattern in the book. I believe that the hair is tied on top and the tips are folded back over the butts to form the wing. So it should be a bullet head instead of just the butts cut off like other caddis patterns.
Size 18 0r 20 hooks should only be mabe 6 to 10 at most deer hairs on this fly.
I'll go through book again and see if there is a picture but the index only references 2 pages. One with the pattern I posted and another that just mentioned it and references you to the pattern
page.

If this is the way to do it, just measure you tips to be slightly longer than the hook shank. Trim the remaining buts to a hook lenght and tie them in. Fold the butts on top and tie down making a small head and whip finish.

Bill
Volksnurse wrote:
The first couple I tied with the recipe in the book looked closely related to large, barbless dust bunnies...It does seem similar to some of the down wing caddis patterns out there...My impression is that the whole thing is done with a clump of deer hair. Its the steps in tying that are vague...I think I'm just missing something simple...

At this point I'm just trying to assuage my OCD and come up with something bug like to throw at fish...If I can tie something not too embarrassing, I'll post pics.

JackM wrote:
whheff wrote:
From the book:
Hook 18-20 up-eye; standard weight
Thread color to match the body hair color
body and wing a clump of deer hair, the stubs are layed along the shank and wrapped down lengthtwise ; the tips of the clump form the wing.

Hope this help you.
Bill


I have to admit, that does not help me much. You fasten the butts near the bend or the eye? then let the tips be the "wings." What kind of wings? Surely someone can solve this mystery by photograph. I'll run a search.... no luck.
 
After a bunch of trys and ties...this is, I guess, an approximation of what was intended...LaFontaine describes it as fast and simple to tie...I guess it is if you've tied a thousand. This is a clump of hair tied at the butts as close to the eye as I could *without* spinning it,

hair tied with thread carefully to the shank for segmentation,

wrap the thread forward again, then pull the hair forward and tie again with pinch wraps, careful not to spin it too much,

pull the tips back and tie down just a little for the wings...

Deer hair, thread and hook. With practice, I think I could tie them pretty small...This is on a 16.

Thanks for all the input guys! (Even D_D and HeritAGED Angler)

Think that's it?
 

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I think you are very close Volksnurse. It looks like there are two versions in play here. I decided to take a crack a interpreting the recipe tonight. I've never seen a picture, and these are my first attempts, so take this all with a large grain of salt.

The LaFontaine description would seem to require initially tying in the deer hair at the bend with the tips pointing out over the bend. I then tied the body humpy style (I didn't try and segment) and folded back the tips over the body to form the wing. The problem here is that you really have to play around to get the wing the right length. I didn't, and wound up with a wing that is clearly too long. The butt is also a bit scraggly:
MightBeCartopCaddis_I.JPG


The Akin version from the link I posted above clearly uses 2 different bits of deer hair for the body and wing. So I tied the body with olive deer hair humpy style, clipped off the butts, and then added the wing of natural deer hair similar to an EHC wing. I wish I tried to segment this one:
MightBeCartopCaddis_II.JPG


I think if I had to tie one on the top of a car, I would go with #2. Segmenting the body would make an interesting fly. But I'm not sure I see much benefit over a Toth EHC.
 
Nice! Thanks Mike....gonna try tying in at the tail...I agree the length of the wing is the hardest part...

I'm not so sure how useful a fly it is, but I kind of wanted to see what it looked like. Since I was stuck in with a sick kid most of the weekend, it helped pass the time...
 
I was passing by, noticed the thread.

Darwin once showed me the tie, but my memory is hazy. Fortunately I have a write-up.

Dry fly hook.
Thread the shank.
Deer hair 3+ times shank length.
Even hair tips.
Tie on butts an eye-length behind eye, wrap closely back to rear of shank.
Bend tips forward, wrap in segment-making spiral to behind eye.
Wrap thread rearward a bit, bend hair tips back, tie down into bullet head, with 'topwing' flowing back beyond bend.
Tie off and cement.

Give it a try!
 
Thanks! I'll give it a try!
 
Volks,

I saw this thread and since (for some strange reason) :) I have a lot of deer hair, I thought I would give it a try. Seemed Like it would give me a chance to practice positioning the hair and tying it down for the CDC and Elk.

Got the instructions from Charlie's Fly Box.

Here's the first one: Got the hair a little forward of the correct position and might be a little sparse.
 

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Pretty good Dave...Thanks!
 
Here's a quick Cartop Caddis:

IMGP5892_zpsf470a1ce.jpg


(I should have thumbnailed the hairs to make the wing cover all 180 degrees of the top, but I snapped the pic before I thought of it.)
(And next time I'll ease up a bit on the rearmost wing wrap, try to tame the wing angle.)
(And it was a short hook that first came to hand.)
(In other words, I rushed the little project!)
(If I keep typing, I'll just find more things to pick about; so I'll hit the 'submit' button now.)


It doesn't get much simpler- Tie on, bind it back, spiral it forward, flair it back at a 'neck'.
 
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