Al Troth Elk Hair Caddis

[Ear4]

Can someone elaborate on #4 above? What exactly do you mean by “trim the front end of the wing in advance?”

Thanks

Ed



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[PYochim]

Can someone elaborate on #4 above? What exactly do you mean by “trim the front end of the wing in advance?”

Thanks

Ed



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Ed,
After taking the elk hair from the stacker I hold it over the hook and trim it to the desired length instead of tying it down and trimming it last. In his videos, Barry Ord Clarke trims it last. I'm not going to argue with him but when I do this I find myself crowding the eye of the hook. Here's his video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FEqocu18bQ

[billems]

Also, Troth favored the short-shanked hook, like the Tiemco 921 or the Dai-Riki Al Troth hook.

[Ear4]

Ahhh got it! That is SO COOL! I just tried it and it definitely doesn’t crowd the head the way I was doing before by cutting the hair, then whip finishing it. Thanks so much!

[PYochim]

Also, Troth favored the short-shanked hook, like the Tiemco 921 or the Dai-Riki Al Troth hook.

The problem that would present for me is that I would crowd the eye of the hook.

While we're on the caddis topic would anyone care to share tips for tying the CDC & Elk, please.

[Dwight]

For what it’s worth, I always bind the thread to the shank with very sticky ‘wax’ and I make sure the elk hair is secured to just that (right behind the eye) and not any dubbed thread underneath. A George Harvey dry fly knot tied over the elk hair works amazingly well and actually serves to further secure the head.

[dborjas]

Al waited to trim excess hair after it was tied to the hook. After securing the hair he would grab the front, bend it back and up and lay some wraps in front and under the elk hair. This would "pinch" and help hold the clump of hair. He would also allow the hair to for a half circle on the top of the hook. The hair on each side of the hook would sit in the surface film and hold the fly up.













The last 2 pics are from Al's worksheets that he handed out for his flytying classes.

[ibookje]

Al's fly in the book 'Art of the Trout fly'.

[Flykuni3]

Such a great shot of a fly. Pitt, am wondering how you got that suspended in air effect.

[Loogie]

Such a great shot of a fly. Pitt, am wondering how you got that suspended in air effect.

With multiple shots from different aspects, and then meld the pics into one. That way you can see depth because the whole fly is under focus. It takes work and knowledge to meld pics like that.

[PYochim]

Such a great shot of a fly. Pitt, am wondering how you got that suspended in air effect.

With multiple shots from different aspects, and then meld the pics into one. That way you can see depth because the whole fly is under focus. It takes work and knowledge to meld pics like that.

I believe the technique is called Focus Stacking. One takes a number of images of the same object moving the camera on a focusing rail a miniscule distance and then blending them in post processing so that the entire object is in focus. It is very time consuming and requires a lot of patience.

[snorider]

That is just what Sandy was doing. His focus stacked photos of insects are awesome if you care to do some searching.

[billems]

Charlie's Fly Box site has a great tutorial on tying the EHC.

[dborjas]

I was running a bit low on elk hair caddis so I thought I would take a pic of the 22 shell board technique as learned from Al Troth. My father in law built this board for me in the mid 80's. Holds 6 dozen. It was great having Mr. Troth in the same small town.



Al was always looking for ways to streamline tying production. The elkhair is easily tied under 4 minutes.

[bassman]

I sure miss Sandy and his photographic work. His layered system of taking multiple exposures and melding them made photographic art.

[Loogie]

One of my favorite threads on this forum. That fly is superb, as are the hacks to tie this very effective fly!

[PYochim]

A blast from the past.

I have always had trouble setting the wings on the EHC so I quit tying them. At a local TU tying gathering I asked on of the local legends to assist me. I came away with these pointers.
1. Less dubbing is better.
2. Use good elk hair. Nature's Spirit is the best
3. A clump of elk hair the size of a .22 is too small. A loose clump the size of a .357 is perfect for a size 16 fly. That will compress nicely when tied
properly.
4. Trim the front end of the wing in advance.
5. Make sure the wing is being attached to the dubbed body and not the bare hook.
6. Pinch the wing and hold it above the dubbed body when tying it in so it won't wrap around the hook.
7. Sheer thread is the best for this fly.

Ont thing I might add is that when tying in the wing it is important to remove all of the underfur from the wing before tying it on the body. This will keep it on the top of the hook. The other thing is to give some space between the hook eye and where you begin to tie the wing on so as not to crowd the eye.

[oholi]

Such a great shot of a fly. Pitt, am wondering how you got that suspended in air effect.

With multiple shots from different aspects, and then meld the pics into one. That way you can see depth because the whole fly is under focus. It takes work and knowledge to meld pics like that.

Not that difficult to focus stack. I did this one with mini tripod and literally moving focus along the fly.... Editing-Stacking the fly is easy. 5 minutes

I even managed to do some macro shots of insects handheld and stack.... Its difficult to but possible.

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[Skeet1969]

I would love to get a copy (or a PDF) of the pages shown in post #27 (or any other from that presentation) if anyone has them available.
Thanks.
Mike B
PS: I love this thread.

[billems]

No .22 shells for tying? You mean I got to guy a 357 to tie a good EHC? Dang!