F-Fly

Dry fly imitating caddis, for trout and grayling. Beginner. Marjan Fratnik, 1980.

A body of tying thread and a wing of natural dun CDC, cut to length.

Materials

Steps

  1. Attach thread Attach the thread at 90% of the way along the shank with a few turns and trim the tag end.
  2. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  3. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 88% of the way along the shank in touching turns. A thin, even thread body: the original has no other body material.
  4. Tie in: natural dun cdc feathers, two stacked Tie in a bunch of natural dun cdc feathers, two stacked, leaving 2.35× the gape sticking out behind, angled about 20° up from the shank. Stacked with tips and curves matched; pinch-wrapped on top just behind the eye.
  5. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread. Trim the butts short, then cut the wing to length.

History

Designed by Marjan Fratnik, born in 1919 at Most na Soči in Slovenia's Soča valley, as a caddis imitation: in 1980 according to Hans Weilenmann, or from a CDC fly the Swiss tyer Jules Rindlisbacher gave him in 1983 according to his obituary in Forelle & Äsche. The original had no body material at all, just silk thread. Tomaž Modic, who knew Fratnik, explains that the wing was cut to length because the cut end is stiff, so the fly dries quickly in the cast and rides high.

Fishing it

Modic points out that the body lies in the film with only the wing above it, so the fly is really an emerger; fish it during midge, caddis or mayfly hatches, or as a general pattern. After a fish, dry the CDC with amadou and a few false casts: Weilenmann warns that paste or liquid floatant collapses the feather, and finds that drying powders last only a fish.

Sources