Photo: Matt Guymon / Freestone Rivers Photography.
If you’re fly fishing for trout and grayling, you won’t get far without a good imitation of both mayflies and caddis. In the books and online there are literally hundreds of specific patterns and styles to choose from. Some of them we’ve featured here on the blog and some on our YouTube-channel, but I don’t think we’ve ever touched on the X-Caddis and the Sparkle Dun.
The two flies were created by the legendary Craig Matthews, who owns the equally legendary shop in Wet Yellowstone, Blue Ribbon Flies. Coming from Scandinavia to Yellowstone to fish for trout was fantastic and visiting Blue Ribbon Flies and also Craig Matthews left me a little star struck. As it turned out, he was of course a very nice and helpful gentleman, down to earth and happened to be a legend as well.
I knew the two flies, X-Caddis and Sparkle Dun, but I’d never fished them and obviously, he recommended them and called them essential. I’ve never really liked fishing flies I haven’t tied my self I did of course buy some. And they were and are of course great flies.
Coming from Scandinavia to Yellowstone to fish for trout was fantastic and visiting Blue Ribbon Flies and also Craig Matthews left me a little star struck.
In general they provide a believable profile, are easy to tie, quite durable and can be tied in all sizes and colours. They’re both three-material-flies (Z-Lon, dubbing and deer hair). They’re also tied in almost the exact same way. The difference being that the Sparkle Dun has a thorax and an upright wight, tied Comparadun-style. The X-Caddis has a deer hair wing tied Elk Hair Caddis-style.
What sets them apart and what they share is the tail and this is what was an innovation when they were created. It’s not even a tail as such, but a sparse bunch of Z-Lon (I think it’s basically Antron). The sparse, shining, translucent material is meant to imitate the trailing shuck of an insect almost fully hatched. A good mouth full for a fish, but still in a vulnerable state where it can’t quite take flight yet.
It’s a famous and wide spread fly, so it’s obviously good. I caught fish on it then and several other times in many places and countries. They both sit low in the film, just as a hatching mayfly or caddis, because they are mainly carried by the deer hair wing. Bunched up Elk Hair Caddis style for the X-Caddis, upright and flaired for the Sparkle Dun. The flaired deer hair wing makes the fly float very well and it almost always land wing up.
So three cheap and readily available materials, an easy tie, a durable fly and one that fishes extremely well. There’s really no reason or excuse not to have them in your box. The only thing to really make sure of is to get the right type of deer hair. I actually still have a piece left from a handful of packs I bought in Blue Ribbon Flies. Look for deer hair sold under the ingenious name “Comparadun Hair” and you’re on the right track.
And speaking of Comparadun Hair, I also have a pack of that very material, supplied by Hareline, who also happens to be our distributor in the USA. Hareline recently got a very flattering mention on the East Rosebud Fly Shop podcast as their best fly tying vendor. We know they’re good and we’re proud and thankful to work with them, so we also appreciate when others appreciate them. Have a look here:
Hareline Dubbing has recently moved warehouse from Oregon to Michigan, but as you can see, they are in place in the new warehouse and are ready to handle orders for stores all over the world.
