Fly of the Week: Bird of Prey Caddis

Today I picked up the book Fly Fishing Guide to Upper Delaware River by Paul Weamer. The majority of this river is fairly close to my house (between an hour to Philly at it's mouth to about 3 hours to the border with NY.) I have never fished it but have always wanted to. And since a three hour drive is a little far for a scouting trip, I figured this book would be the next best thing.


I plan to do a complete write up of the book when I finish it, but paging through it I found a fly that looked so good I bumped the fly that I was going to do today and instead tied this one up. It's call the Bird of Prey Caddis.

This fly was created by Rick Anderson. The author says that this is one of the most productive caddis patterns he has fished and is great in the winter. Just from the looks of it, I agree.

Here is my Bird of Prey Caddis variant. The book uses a natural dubbing, a peral flashabou rib and a bead head. Beings this was my first tie at this fly, I wanted a little more shank to work with so I skipped the bead, forgot the flash and I've always had a special place in my heart for synthetic dubbing. It give's any fly a great flash in the water.

Hook: size 14
Tail: Grey Partridge fibers
Abdomen: synthetic maroon dubbing
Legs: Grey Partridge hackle
Thorax: peacock herl