Without question, my favorite, and most effective fly for whitefish is Ken Morrish's Hot Wire Caddis. A couple years ago I was fishing the Teton River and South Fork Snake in SE Idaho and found that this fly in chartreuse and hot yellow outperformed my previous favorite, a bead-head Prince, by a wide margin. I've caught bigger whities on zebras and firebead scuds on some western tailwaters but this fly has proven a more consistent fish-getter. If you don't mind catching a trout every once in a while, straight copper, brown and black have worked pretty well, too. Pretty simple fly to tie. I did this one in a bit of a hurry (while my wife was out running errands), didn't have any of the UTC wire in Small, only Brassie or X-Small so I used the Brassie, which was probably a little big for the hook size, hence the gaps between wire wraps (could have pushed them back with my fingernail but fish don't care). We'll call this a guide tie, even though I'm definitely no guide; guess I could call it a TFLTFI (Too Frikkin' Lazy To Fix It) hook - Dai Riki 135 #16 thread - Uni 8/0 black body - UTC Ultra Wire chartreuse shell back - flexi floss black underwing - goose biots brown overwing - Krystal Flash pearl legs - partridge hackle collar - Ice Dub UV black head - 3/32 black brass bead Part 1 Mash down barb & slide bead on hook Lay down a base layer of thread then tie in Flexi-floss and wire Wrap Flexi-floss and wire back to and past hook bend (thread's frayed; looks like I've got a nick in the bobbin tube) Wrap thread back to head and then wrap wire forward 4 turns Pull Flexi-floss over top of wire Hold Flexi-floss there and then wrap wire once over, pull floss back and continue wrapping wire (4 turns again) Repeat and again Couple more wire wraps and snip tag end of shellback Helicopter wire to break it and cover end with thread wraps pull off 2 biots for the underwing Tie in "V" style with tips extending back to hook bend Prep a partridge feather and snip out the tip Hold partridge feather on top of fly, a couple soft thread wraps and adjust legs as needed with a tug or two 2 strands of Krystal Flash (I see a career as a hand model in my future) Tied in Folded over (trim to hook bend) Apply small amount of dubbing Wrap a sparse collar Whip finish, add a touch of Miss Sally and you're done Change colors and sizes as you see fit. Steve Schalla has a good SBS on his site, too (minus the humor and snappy banter I provide free of charge) http://stevenojai.tripod.com/insthotwirecad.htm Regards, Scott
Nice looking fly. I'm planning on partaking of a little winter whitefish fishing this year. I'll have to tie up a few of these.
Speaking of Miss Sally, I bet this would work well during a yellow sally hatch on the west side rivers.
