The Elk Hair Caddis is a

dry fly Dry fly fishing is an angling technique in which the Fishing lure, lure is an artificial fly which floats on the surface of the water and does not sink below it. It was developed originally for trout fly fishing. The fish and the dry fly Fly fishi ...

commonly used for

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

fishing. The Elk Hair Caddis was created by

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

fly tyer Fly tying (also historically referred to in England as dressing flies) is the process of producing an artificial fly used by fly fishing anglers to catch fish. Fly tying is a manual process done by a single individual using hand tools and a vari ...

Al Troth in 1957. He is considered a pioneer in the sport of

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

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 (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 basis ...

or small

stoneflies Plecoptera is an order of insects commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most ...

. 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 liked to fish and

G. E. M. Skues George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues (1858–1949), was a British lawyer, writer and fly fisherman. He invented modern-day nymph fishing. This caused a controversy with the Chalk stream dry fly doctrine developed by ...

' 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 The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...

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 Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...

. 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 , 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