CDC

[PYochim]

I used to dread tying with CDC but this year I have made my peace with it. I used a lot of it this year and when going over my logs, the majority of fish taken on dries have been on CDC patterns.

[Ear4]

Beautiful flies. I feel like I am still finding my way thing with CDC but have a good deal of success fishing them.

Did you use puffs, fibers from the larger feathers cuts off the stem, or something else?


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[henkverhaar]

... the majority of fish taken on dries have been on CDC patterns.

Of course ;-)

CDC&Elk and Petitjean 'Caddis' in my case

[Silver Doctor]

Tied up a few CDC F-Flies flies using 2 CDC feathers on a #16 wire hook. Fished them on a brown Trout stream yesterday. Seem to drift nicely but hard to see on a sun dappled stream. Mine also seemed to sink in a bit of broken water and needed a lot of false casts and sometimes desiccate to get floating again. Do I need to use 4 or more CDC feathers to get a nice float?

Will tie up some emerges like the above, how many feathers are you using.

[PYochim]

There are three feathers on each fly. I haven't found an application for puffs yet.

[flyfishingpastor]

Nice tie Paul. Fish catchers for sure!

Pat

[PYochim]

Pat, thanks.

[Norm Frechette]

i very seldom tie with cdc

its one and done

once it gets slimed its rendered sorta useless

at least for me

ymmv

[snorider]

Paul,
That is essentially a Harrop Last Chance Cripple tied on a klinkhammer hook, and I love it! The LCC is one of my favorite slick water mayfly patterns, I tie em from #20 BWO up to #10 March Brown/Green Drake. I get the feeling that Renee Harrop knows a thing or two about slick water fly patterns. A shuck is a nice addition and would very much recommend a tiny hank of wood duck or moose body hair, or even amber zelon. The puffs from a duck are a bit small for anything but a wee little mayfly, but the Canada Goose puffs are IDEAL for the LCC.
Thanks for sharing your pattern...

[Eric Peper]

A few years back, when I was still able to fish the Henry's Fork 4=5 days a week, I would guess that 70% of the fish I caught were taken on a size 16 CDC & Elk . . . regardless of what was hatching or on the water at the time. The key IMO is in the motion the CDC imparts to the fly.

Eric

[PYochim]

Eric, the CDC & Elk is next.

[Caneghost]

I tie a majority of my most effective flies with CDC and have for many years. I started with the material thirty years ago and then got some different ideas from some of the European tiers at the first or second Fly Tier's Symposium in Western, PA. I find more of our very pressured wild trout keying upon moving naturals during an emergence, whether heavy or sparse, and CDC offers great movement within the fly itself. I think it is quite easy to tie with, and I use puffs a lot.

[GrsdLnr]

i very seldom tie with cdc

its one and done

once it gets slimed its rendered sorta useless

at least for me

ymmv

This was my opinion of CDC for a long time. CDC flies were reserved for picky trout that refused a more conventional pattern. I've come around, at least partially and will usually try a CDC and Elk as a searching pattern when no fish are rising, or when they're rising to something unidentifiable. It works often enough.

Having to change flies after every fish or two is the flyfisherman's version of a first world problem.

[PYochim]

Breaking News! I tied up a few using CDC puffs. They are a little harder to work with but they seemed to float pretty well.

I also tied a CDC & Elk.

[baughb]

There are three feathers on each fly. I haven't found an application for puffs yet.

The only use for the puffs that I have found is on emergers that I have no expectations of "dry fly" floating. I fish them most often as trailers to a higher floating dry fly.

[Sandan]

Here's an LCC with a shuck, a 20 I think, works great. As to floatability I've found that Loon Lochsa works great on CDC.

[rsagebrush]

They work well as a wing on ant patterns.

[barebo]

I have one trout that has been my nemesis and have a pattern shared with me by Caneghost that I think may be his undoing. So... I went online and ordered the materials needed. This was early last week. CDC from a shop in Missouri went to Nashville then to Fresno, Ca! I live in Central NY! CDC and hooks and the right color biots from Massachusetts went to New Hampshire and left a week ago from the distribution center in Nashua. "In transit"

It will be a learning curve for me tying with CDC but my hope is that all of the positive feedback here will prove fruitful for me IF I ever get the chance to have a go at it! I did catch a few on a BWO standard dry fly but the "picky" fish ignored it.

[Caneghost]

I take it there is no fly shop close enough to you to be convenient. Sounds like the kind of ring around the country shipping routes I saw last year in the heat of the crazy. I hope the fly does the deed when you finally get to tie it. While you are at it, tie a couple of cdc comparaduns too. Use the cdc puffs or bunches of fibers for the wing instead of deer hair.

[barebo]

I have both "oiler puffs" and feathers coming to experiment with. There is a shop in Syracuse, and I've frequented it over the years, and admittedly have gotten adverse to driving over there and have taken the route of laziness and convenience online - poor excuse, I know!