Dark Cahill ~ Morphogenesis of the Western Hairwing Wetfly

     Some writers seem fond of theorizing that the popularity of hairwing designs in the West came about as the result of the unique demands of “big, brawling Western freestones”, holding “big trout”, & the need to imitate “big Western insects”. Sounds good, at first, yet just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. It is true that a clump of hair exhibits more action & will take more abuse than a paired quill wing, & that is a thing that was known before flyfishing arrived in the West. But, if hair has more action than quill, then wouldn’t it follow that hair is not a necessity of swift freestones, & in fact might even be a better choice than quill for quieter water as well? And isn’t it true that there are big freestones in the East & upper Midwest, & baitfish & large insects as well? Nope. Not buying the ‘big brawling freestone’ theory.

As one who has lived quite a few years in a remote region of the PNW, beyond the power lines for a time, I’m fairly convinced the hairwings came about out of necessity & convenience. Sure, there are wood ducks in the West, but they are elusive & seldom around when you need one, & the West is a big place. However, the country abounds with cow tails, buck tails, pine squirrel tails, ground squirrel tails, skunk tails & the tails of hairy critters of all types. In 1900 there were no cars & few roads in the West & even fewer places to buy exotic feathers shipped from London & New York. Sure, rich sports from the East visited the Far West, but the pioneer Western flyfisher had to make most of his own gear, & I’m fairly certain there were few who could afford to spend money on fancy quills &, instead, worked from the lush indigenous palette regarding toppings – fur was near to hand, easy to tie with & most importantly, effective, & the hair wing eventually became a distinguishing feature of the Western style.          

The 1973 edition of the old Veniard’s Fly Dresser’s Guide (already more historical than current at the time of the 1973 revision) lists twenty hairwing wetflies as trout flies, & out of that number about half might be considered steelhead flies, though at the time of original publication most trouting in America was done using #6 wetflies, so there probably wasn’t much distinction in the old days, the attractor-style patterns used for both sea-run & landlocked trout in the Far West. Most of the patterns listed are hairwing conversions of old favorite quill-winged wets, & most are of the fancy attractor type; yet there are a few drab patterns representing flies originally meant to fish for specific insects, & among these the Cahill, & the recipe given in Veniard’s not in the least resembling the original tied by Don Cahill of Port Jervis, New York, in 1887, to simulate the Pale Morning Dun & Pale Evening Dun mayflies of the Catskill region. Yet the pattern given in Veniard’s exactly matches a variant I found in a Colorado fly shop in 1973 – which I think is interesting, as Veniard does suggest that hairwing trout flies are mainly indigenous to the American West, & I now suspect that all the hairwing patterns given in the Fly Dresser’s Guide are actually patterns that were in general usage for trout fishing in the West in the early through mid-1900’s, as that appears to be the case.

I can see the possible genesis: The original Don Cahill pattern, with its characteristic wing & tail of lemon wood duck, became very popular in the East, so popular that a version with dark tan body, the Dark Cahill, soon joined the original tied with a light cream body, & then there were more offspring, including variants with gray or pink bodies. Pioneer flyfishers carried these patterns west, fished them, & morphed them to the Western hairwing style.  

The Dark Cahill with its universally buggy coloration is one of those nondescript patterns that mimics a broad spectrum of insects, add a wing of squirrel tail & it serves to simulate both emergent & drowned mayflies, a stillborn or drowned stonefly, or an egg-laying sedge, or maybe a terrestrial. This  pattern, with its natural coloration, may have filled an important niche in the West during an era dominated by fanciful attractor patterns, & worked well enough to remain in general usage in the Rocky Mountain region into the early 1970’s, an era when the old wetflies were increasingly replaced with evolving, species-specific type nymphs & dryflies. The ones I purchased in Colorado worked well on the small mountain streams west of Denver, where I spent one year. And also turned the trick on an incredible stream that we crossed in the wasteland of Wyoming traveling from Colorado to Washington, & then again on the Clearwater in Idaho during that same trip. Later, the Dark Cahill hairwing proved useful during upper Columbia spotted sedge hatches.

Veniard gives the instructions thus:

Cahill

Tail. Brown hackle fibres.

Body. Grey fur.

Hackle. Brown *cock.

Wings. Barred brown squirrel tail.

*Most of the old wetfly patterns called for cock hackle, & it should be noted that the cock hackle of the old days was not the stiff, spiky dryfly hackle that we see today from birds bred for the purpose. The cock hackle of the old days was more similar to the bred hen necks available today. Winged wetflies were meant for fishing freestone streams, & the cock hackle was thought to be superior to softer hen. Theoretically, it would maintain its flare in faster water. But the problem I have with barnyard cock is that it often has a soft webby center which causes the hackle to hinge at the base, laying back over the fly while otherwise maintaining its stiffness. To my mind not as good as a soft hackle undulating & flared over a short thorax of dubbing. I’ve found the Whiting Hebert Miner hen to be a better choice for hackling winged wets.  

The example featured here is tied as Veniard describes it – with hackle installed in-the-round, same as the ones I found in 1973 Denver. A #12 is as small as I generally go. The previous posts in this hairwing series have featured some of the larger patterns I tie & fish for trout, so now I’ll post some of the smaller ones. I found some old Mustad 3906B wetfly hooks that I bought back in 1973, which is what the Dark Cahill is tied on.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com         

Low Water Spider

     I’ve been posting a series of hairwing patterns lately & will continue, as I’m planning to post some smaller versions, but while I’m in the groove featuring mostly larger hairwing attractor patterns, I thought to put up a wingless type most often seen on streams holding sea-run fish, yet, like the hairwing wetfly, mostly overlooked as a trout lure. But spiders can be good when swung on pre-spawn trout that are not in the mood for anything fat yet inclined to bite something fancifully sexy – the same as their sea-run kin. I love tying low water spiders. They are like soft-hackle nymphs on hallucinogens. The possible creative variations are limitless. The pattern featured here is the basic formula. Typically, I use two contrasting hackles for the collars. I usually tie these in #6-#8 for fishing smaller coastal streams & upper Columbia trout, but the concept can be scaled down to as small as #12 (reasonably) to meet smaller streams holding smaller fish. Freestone brookies & cutthroat love these in the smaller sizes.

Low Water Spider

Hook: #6-#10 TMC 200R

Thread: Orange UNI 8/0

Tail: Golden pheasant tippet

Body: Orange Pearsall’s tying silk underbody & butt, copper tinsel, peacock herl twisted with the orange silk

Hackle: Orange guinea hen / gadwall ~ & finish with jungle cock nail cheeks. 

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com    

Camp Dog ~ Hairwing Wetfly

     Though there are some stand-out examples from the Northeast & upper Midwest, there is no doubt that hairwing flies have earned their place in the West, where they flourish & their development still ongoing. We see two distinct lines in the West: the Trude style of the Rocky Mountain region, tied with cock hackle, a sort of combination pattern fished both wet & dry; & the Western salmon/steelhead hairwing style, with roots in the Atlantic salmon traditions. But it is interesting, I think, that the style/approach hasn’t been widely applied to trout flies, & for no good reason, in my own experience. Probably due to trends. About the time quill-winged wets were vacating fly boxes in the 1960’s, they were replaced with wingless nymphs of all types, popularized by writers at that time. And now the bobber & bead-head trend. The style has not been abandoned altogether, but its development has been truncated somewhat in the trout fly department, most anglers busy concentrating on the presentation they know.

The Camp Dog & other hairwings posted here are swinging flies, & come into their own when that presentation is called for. Trout like the swing & dangle every bit as much as salmon & steelhead do. At times, it is all they want. These are perfect for delivery with two-handed trout rods on larger freestones; filling a niche where large streamers don’t fit the bill &, in my own experience, more often than not the more demure hairwing will out-fish a big streamer, while being more pleasant to cast.

I mean the Camp Dog as a lure. Combinations of copper, orange, red, yellow & black work as a trigger on my home water, as evidenced by the success of the Thomas Buoyant spoon here, in copper with red, yellow & black spots. No, it’s not the action. The same model & weight in another color doesn’t work nearly as well. I played with the colors, arriving at this version, which killed UC redband & cutthroat for us this Fall after October caddis faded. I hope somebody will try this one on sea-run cutts & give me a report.

Camp Dog

Hook: #8-#12 3x wetfly style (I tie these in mostly #8-#10, on TMC 200R or salmon/steelhead style hooks)

Thread: Orange UNI 8/0

Tail: Golden pheasant tippet

Body: Tag of orange tying thread; copper tinsel; a short thorax of red fur dubbing

Topping: Stacked: yellow calf tail; squirrel tail; red yak underfur (fox or calf tail may be substituted) -- apply a drop of Loon Hard Head or thick dope to the thread wraps holding the wing

Hackle: Natural black/bronze hen ~ & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com                     

October Caddis Hairwing Wetfly

     This is the basic Western hairwing wetfly that I tie for October caddis. It is an indigenous fly in both function & form. I developed this one to fish for October caddis on the upper Columbia, but it travels well, & is also a basic for coastal cutthroat & steelhead. 

Unlike the last few hairwings featured in this series, it seeks to imitate a certain insect, covering two stages of October caddis: either a winged emerger, or a drowned spinner. I find this style most useful in simulating the emergent phase of drake mayflies & October caddis, larger insects that rise from the bottom fully winged or wings unfurling. Particularly October caddis & black quill (Leptophlebia), an important large mayfly in the Columbia drainage which unfurls its wings prior to emergence, the large black wing a standout feature of the natural. 

A hairwing, in the right size & color, functions as an effective emerger when fishing over black quill, in fact, essential, in my own experience. I spent a lot of frustrating seasons unable to conceive a satisfactory emerging nymph pattern to meet the great black quill hatches of my home water. Until I met some fisheries biologists setting traps for sturgeon larvae. Sampling in about ten feet of water, the traps, set on the bottom, kept plugging up with large nymphs, & the crew showed me their haul & asked me if I could identify the nymphs. They were mahogany all over in coloration, with a striking yellow banding between the abdomen segments, & I was able to identify them because they looked just like the adults. I was surprised that the nymphs were found so deep, but most surprising were the wings unfurling from the distended, black wing pads of the fully mature nymphs. 

Dayum… I thought to myself, they’re swimming up from ten feet deep! trailing that big ol’ black wing! 

Needless to say, I was fishing a winged version of the nymph the following evening, & immediate results let me know I was finally on the right track. Wasn’t too unlike my experience with October caddis. Much as I love wingless patterns, sometimes there is no ignoring the wing as a stand-out feature that must be dealt with.      

October Caddis Hairwing

Hook: I tie these on a #8 steelhead style or TMC 200R

Thread: Rust-brown UNI 8/0

Rib: Copper wire

Abdomen: Umpqua Sparkle Blend October Caddis dubbing (rusty orange) on a loop of the tying thread

Thorax: Mixed, 3/4 natural bluish-gray rabbit with guard hairs, 1/4 Orange Sparkle Blend – don’t over-blend – dubbed on a loop of the tying thread   

Wing: Pine squirrel tail – tie in one mottled turkey tail feather fiber as a cheek on each side of the wing

Hackle: One turn of orange hen or saddle ahead of the wing, then to the hook eye with furnace hen ~ & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

Hairwing Wetflies ~ Kamiakin

     The basic form of the Kamiakin (named for the Spokane war chief who defeated the U.S. Army at the Battle of Steptoe Butte) is fairly typical of the hairwing style attractors I’m tying for trout, in sizes #8 to #12. The elements, material choices, color combinations of my flies are those things I’ve found to be attractive to the trout living in my home water (& you might recognize these to be attractive to trout, in general, more or less). Known (or suspected) trigger elements, if you will. I tie the bodies a bit forward on the hook, usually tipped about even with the hook point. Bodies might be anything. I tie some with tinsel bodies, & on those I apply a short thorax or ball of dubbing before tying in wings, providing a bit of bulk to lift the wing slightly & flare the hackle.  Tails are kept fairly short. Wings, or toppings, aren’t too heavy. Light should pass through. Too fat a wing will swim like a shaving brush. I like the wing to extend to the end of the hook bend, perhaps a whisper of hair tips beyond. I don’t even the hair in a stacker, just tweeze & even by hand. Unlike the old wetfly patterns tied for trout which called for cock hackle, tied bearded, I borrow from the soft-hackle tradition, using game & hen hackle, tied in-the-round. As these are fast-water flies, & often fished moving – swung, lifted, stripped – I hackle my wetflies somewhat heavier than I would usually hackle a nymph or flymph, folding back the barbs from both sides of the stem, together, & generally going for three, or four winds on larger patterns like the #8, 3x long versions I fish on my home water. Sometimes I use more than one hackle & mix colors. I’ve found that trout appreciate a highlight added to the wing, like the red mallard flank fibers tied in as a cheek on the Messenger, the turkey tail fibers on the October Caddis patterns, & the gadwall flank used on the Kamiakin.

Kamiakin            

Hook: #8-#12 TMC 200R, or choice

Thread: Black UNI 8/0

Tag: Black thread

Tail: Brown-dyed mallard flank (less expensive than lemon wood duck)

Rib: Fine silver wire

Butt: Bright yellow floss

Body: Peacock herl twisted with the yellow floss

Wing: Pine squirrel & 2 gadwall flank fibers per side, tied in as a cheek

Hackle: Furnace hen ~ & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

Dark Spruce Hairwing

     A walk through the archives of ancient trout flies & we see hair was not that popular a material for trout flies in the British Isles. In an era when the Brits were still fastidiously marrying quills onto their trout flies, pioneer anglers of the American West were discovering that hairwings were more effective than the old quill winged wetflies, hair, a more suitable material for the larger sized flies needed to meet the big trout of the western freestones, & they were finding more creative ways to use it, developing new patterns that were uniquely American, like the streamer flies of Maine, informed by a regional need. Indigenous patterns. The earliest hairwinged trout flies of the West were simply favorite old-world wetfly & streamer patterns tied with hair wings, but things took off from there. The Trude, tied in 1901 by Carter Harrison for Alfred Trude, with some red yarn from the cabin rug & winged with retriever hair (as a joke, some say), was a landmark pattern, all the more so, as it is fished both dry & wet, foundational to an entirely new breed, now extensively fished throughout the Rocky Mountain Region & beyond. The squirrel-winged Picket Pin, tied by Montana tavern owner Jack Boehme in 1910, is another unique Western pattern that comes to mind. Meant to fish for stoneflies but also a good attractor. Like the Trude, the Picket Pin is fished both wet & dry – I’ve seen it classified as a streamer, & it does fish as a streamer, but I suspect its maker fished it in the Western style, as a dryfly, until it sank, then, a wetfly. The Godfrey Special, now known as the Spruce, is another Western design that proved, & survived as a favorite for over 100 years. Though originally tied as a streamer, not a hairwing, the Dark Spruce lends itself well to the style. Originally tied for sea-run cutthroat, I’ve found that inland cutthroat like this hairwing version as well. Brookies too. My brother caught a 9 pound brown on this pattern.

The original calls for a red floss butt, though the red mylar gives more flash. One can wind fine wire over the body, but having had trouble with it slipping down the mylar portion, I quit using it, instead, coating that portion of the fly with a thick, clear dope.

Dark Spruce Hairwing

Hook: I like TMC 200R, TMC 2312, & I still have some old-timey Mustad 3906B’s – ideally a wetfly/nymph hook 2x or 3x long, depending on design & size. In sizes smaller than #10, a 2x long or standard wetfly hook will give you more gape in the bend, which may be a better way to go in some waters. Paul Bruun, who also develops hairwings, & probably knows, tells me Jackson Hole cutthroats tend to twist off the TMC 200R. Which leads me to consider how various populations of trout have their distinctive fighting characteristics which, along with other variables, will dictate what the hook need be. In theory, the design functions much the same as a classic salmon/steelhead fly, & can be fished the same way. As the fly is often fished with quite a bit of movement, swung, lifted, stripped, I don’t want a lot of material trailing for chasing trout to snipe at. I don’t want to get short-bit. But, at the same time, the longer the wing the more action it has, so I want to maximize the length of the wing, which extends to the end of the hook bend.

Thread: Black UNI 8/0

Tail: Peacock sword tips

Butt: Red mylar tinsel

Body: Peacock herl

Wing: Pine squirrel tail

Hackle: Furnace hen  & finish

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com                

Hairwings For Trout ~ Guinea & Squirrel October Caddis

     We’ve been having a superb October caddis hatch this season, lots of caddis & good weather. Daily opportunity to try out new designs. The hairwings are outperforming wingless pupa patterns, by far. On the upper Columbia, most October caddis hatch from the water, rising swiftly from the bottom as winged adults. Liking the looks of the guinea hackle of Ray Bergman’s Sawtooth, I thought to try guinea on my own version. Tied one up, walked down to the river & tried it this evening, & it worked good. Fished about an hour & a half right up against dark, working down the bank with an 11’3” switch rod rigged with a 210 grain head made from an 8wt double taper line carrying a 12’ sinking leader made from the running section of an old fast-sink line, the head backed with Amnesia running line.

Caught a nice redband, then came up empty on three hard strikes before checking my hook. I’d tinked off the point & better part of the hook bend on the rocks. By then it was too dark to tie on a fresh one & things were dying down anyway. Going to fish this one some more. I should note that they want it moving fairly rapidly, swung, stripped & lifted.

Guinea & Squirrel October Caddis

Hook: #8 TMC 200R (Or your choice. I like a 3x long hook for this pattern.)

Thread: Rust-brown UNI 8/0

Rib: Copper wire

Abdomen: Umpqua October Caddis (rusty orange) sparkle blend dubbing on a loop of the tying thread

Thorax: 2/3 natural bluish-gray rabbit & 1/3 orange sparkle blend dubbing on a loop of the tying thread

Wing: Pine squirrel – tie in a mottled turkey tail fiber on either side

Hackle: Guinea hen ~ & finish

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com