FRONT END LOADER CADDIS FLY TYING TUTORIAL

August 16, 2016

During practice for the World Fly Fishing Championships in 2013, there were not many fish in the rivers of the Vefsna region of Norway where the competition was being held. However, the water was very clear and occasionally a surprise brown trout would attack a dry fly when covering nondescript water. Low floating style patterns seemed to work well in smoother current areas and I fished some hackle stacker type mayflies with success during practice. One evening at the vise I figured I should stick a stacked hackle on the front end of a caddis and see how it fished. The Front End Loader Caddis was born. The few fish that were available ate it confidently in the rest of practice and on the Vefsna River during the championship.

A dry fly eating Norwegian brown trout from a Vefsna River tributary.

A brown from a gorge on the "death river" on our first day of practice for the 2013 World Fly Fishing Championship in Norway.

In the few years since Norway, the Front End Loader Caddis has become my favorite dry fly to use for lighter dry dropper rigs. The hackle stacker framework allows it to sit flush with the water so it will get its fair share of eats from pickier fish in flat water. However, the elk hair wing and well-splayed hackle fibers give it sufficient buoyancy to float a tungsten bead nymph below, even in broken water, and the hackle upfront lends extra flotation when the dry fly is tied on a tag as required in FIPS Mouche competitions. I’ve used the fly so much over the last few years that my teammates joke that they don’t have to ask what dry I used if I was fishing a dry-dropper rig. I tie the Front End Loader Caddis in sizes 10-16 but I fish the sizes 12 and 14 the most. In addition to the tan version I've found that a purple attractor version works very well also. I’m confident you’ll also find a use for it in your box whether you hang a nymph below it or not.

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