A Variant Of Roman Moser's Balloon Caddis

[albannachxcuileag]

One of my problems when tying flies is crowding of the head. I either tie to close to the eye or end up
with enough space to park a Discovery so I adapted the SBS from Tango to this method of tying the
Balloon Headed Caddis.

The use of Peacock Ice Dubbing gives it an added attraction that has worked well for me, not saying
that the original version doesn't as it gave me a red letter day to remember!

On with the show -

Materials

Hook - Grip 13021 size 12 Damsel 1x long
Thread - Olive UTC 140 Denier
Butt - Glo Brite No12 Fluo Green fine
Abdomen - Orvis Peacock Ice Dubbing
Wing - Natural Roe Deer
Balloon - 2mm Orange Foam from Wapsi cut into a 4mm strip for this size of hook

On to the vice!

Step 1.

Secure your hook in the vice and run the thread from the eye to the start of the bend in touching turns

Step 2.

Tie in the butt material



Step 3.

Form a slight 'rugby ball' shape and trim off the excess material



Step 4.

Form a dubbing rope with the peacock ice dubbing, does not need to be slim as caddis have a
substantial sized abdomen



Step 5.

Form that substantial abdomen and leave some room at the eye end of the hook



Step 6.

Tie in the foam strip as close to the eye as possible and bind this down tightly squashing the tag of
foam onto the hook shank



Step 7.

Take a small bunch of deer hair and trim to the length of wing you want. The deer hair I used is of
reasonably uniform length and I don't use a stacker to even the tips but if the stuff you have is straggly
then use a stacker to even up the tips. Tie this in and bind tightly over the butts while holding
the wing section to stop it flaring too much



Step 8.

Now fold over the foam strip and pull tight over the deer hair butt section and tie down tightly to make
it balloon.



Step 9.

I whip finish the balloon with two sets of 3 turn whip finishes as I do not use varnish on the foam. This
gives good enough grip on the foam and holds it together enough to get destroyed by the trout



Step 10.

Slide your scissors along the deer hair to trim the foam as close as possible. Pull out any straggly
looking deer hairs for aesthetic purposes - the fish don't mind actually what it looks like when they
are sedge feeding as they tail slap it under and return to grab it



And there you have it, my variant of OE's take on Roman Moser's Balloon Caddis Variant from the vice of the mad professor.

[maxwell]

deadly dude~!

[beedhead]

Nice work!....Bet that floats like a hot damn!

[Harps]

My first river Brown was taken on a fly tied similar... just a golden pheasant tippet for the tail, rather than a green butt, peacock herl rather than dubbing and yellow foam rather than orange. I like the "bullet head" style of tying on the foam.

 

I was letting the fly dangle in the current as I crossed a shallow riffle... must have popped up on the swing like a swimming female or rising pupa; it was hammered hard.

 

Great fly.

[petti]

thats a killer caddis