The Elk Hair Caddis is a

dry fly Dry fly fishing is an angling technique in which the lure is an artificial fly which floats on the surface of the water and does not sink below it. Developed originally for trout fly fishing. The fish and the dry fly Fly fishing for trout can be ...

commonly used for

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

fishing. The Elk Hair Caddis was created by

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

fly tyer Al Troth in 1957. He is considered a pioneer in the sport of fly fishing for this invention.

Imitates

The Elk Hair Caddis is considered a searching type pattern as it resembles the general form of adult

caddisflies The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

or small stoneflies. Troth created the pattern and first fished it in 1957 on

Loyalsock Creek Loyalsock Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River located chiefly in Sullivan and Lycoming counties in ...

in eastern Pennsylvania. The fly was inspired by several palmered flies Troth like to fish and G. E. M. Skues' Little Red Sedge fly which featured a hair wing. Originally tied to imitate the Green Caddis hatch, the Elk Hair Caddis has since been tied in a variety of wing, hackle and body colors to simulate different caddis and small stoneflies.

Materials

John Gierach explains the materials he uses to create the original Elk Hair Caddis. For a hook he uses the Mustad 94840 ranging from sizes 12-18. Then he uses a dubbed body, palmer hackle, elk hair wings, and a small head to close out the fly.

Elk Hair Caddis for steelhead

The Elk Hair Caddis is not limited to trout fishing. This fly is also very useful when fishing for

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

. Steelhead are the anadromous form (sea-run) of rainbow trout which means some alterations to the standard Elk Hair Caddis are necessary. The hook size should vary from size 6-10. The legs should be a medium grade hackle (non webby, but not dry-fly either).The body could be either vernille, furry foam, coarse bodied dubbing, sparkle braid, or four strand floss. The wings should be made from natural elk hair with the ends clipped short. An optional aspect of the Elk Hair Caddis for steelhead would be a flash. A flash is just a few strands of subtle translucent material placed underneath the wing.

References

{{Fly fishing Dry fly patterns