Les Shannon opened his fly shop in Califon, New Jersey in 1973, and he produced brilliant Catskill-style flies from his vise there. He passed away a decade ago, but his flies still fool trout. In this video from Tightline Productions, blogger and author Matt Grobert walks us through Shannon’s Lemon Cahill pattern. Although the pattern is a good imitation of Light Cahill mayflies, Tim Flagler says he fishes it more to imitate sulfurs.
In the video, Grobert shows off a couple of tying tricks that you’ll surely find useful, such as how to trim, post, and divide the hackle wings, and how to prepare both the hook and the feather to wrap the main hackle in front of and behind the wings.
Les’s Lemon Cahill
Hook: Standard dry-fly hook (here, a Mustad 94840), sizes 12-18.
Thread: Tan, 6/0 or 70 denier.
Wing: Mallard flank.
Tail: Golden straw dry-fly hackle.
Body: 80/20 mix of yellow and white rabbit fur.
Hackle: Golden straw dry-fly hackle.
Head: Tying thread.
