Colorado’s Arkansas River is famous for its caddisfly hatches, and guide Don Puterbaugh guided on the Arkansas until he was 80 years old. (Read a cool profile of Don here.) He developed this high-floating imitation for the heavy riffles on the river, and it became his most popular fly. In this great video, Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions shows you how to create a variation on Puterbaugh’s original. As always, he’s got some great tricks to make preparing and tying in the materials easier and more efficient.
Puterbaugh Caddis Variant
Hook: Standard dry-fly hook (here, a Fulling Mill FM50), size 14.
Thread: Tan, 6/0 or 70-denier.
Underbody: Tan beaver-fur dubbing, fine.
Body: Tan Fly Foam, 2mm.
Wing: Bleached deer hair, cleaned and stacked.
Hackle: Ginger grizzly.
Head: Tying thread.
Tools: Straight edge, hobby knife, scissors, small stacker, hackle pliers, and whip finish.