How to tie a caenis fly pattern.

Some people call these the angler’s curse, when they are in the air sometimes it’s better to sit and watch as they usually hatch in abundance and the fish have a feast but matching this tiny hatch can still be good sport if you can cast it delicately and present it just upstream of feeding fish. It’s a small pattern to tie and can be fiddly but Matthew will show you how and using his method makes it seem simple even on a size 20 hook.

 

Ingredients;

Size 20 hook
Buff or dark tying silk
Coq De Leon
Grey heron
Aero wing
Black dubbing

 

Meathod;

Fist of all pop your size 20 hook in to your vice.

 

 

Take your thread down to the bend of the hook and trim off the tag end.

 

 

Coq De Leon is a speckled feather and if you take just 3 fibers they look kind of stripy and the 3 fibers is important as the caenis has a three pronged tail and we want this pattern to have the same silhouette when floating on the surface.

 

 

After you have caught in the fibers wrap the silk around and under the fibers to make them stand proud and tease them out in to position to look like 3 even tails and then secure in to place. Trim off any extra fibers that are over the eye of the hook.

 

 

Aero wing is a very buoyant fiber and will keep your fly on top of the water just like the real thing. Trim off a short length and place it under your silk on to the top of the hook. Do one lose wrap of the hook and turn the aero wing material 90 degrees so it sits like an airplane wing on top of the shank. Then do a few figure of eight turns to secure it down.

 

 

With some grey heron fibers place them on the hook and catch them in with the silk and then gently pull the fibers along to the ends and then secure in with a few more wraps. Then start wrapping the heron fibers up the shank all the way up to the wings. Then with a few more turns of the silk catch off the fibers and trim.

 

 

For the thorax attach a small amount of black dubbing on to the thread and catch in the first few fibers and then twist the dubbing on the thread to tighten it up a little and with a one or two turns you will have a small black thorax just behind the wing. Then do a few figures of eights around the wings with the dubbing to make a head.

 

 

Pull back the wings out of the way of the eye of the hook and finish with a few wraps and a whip finish. The wings of a caenis are quite short and round so pull the aero wings forward and trim quite short and then give them a little fluff up with your finger and fan them out.

 

 

A quick drop of varnish on the head just behind the eye of the hook to hold it all in place and you are good to go on those warm summer evenings when its sometimes feels like its impossible to match this micro hatch.

 

 *Serving suggestion.