How to Tie the DPH Caddis Dry

I call this super simple but effective fly a DPH Caddis Dry, where DPH stands for the three materials which make up the pattern and the order that they’re tied in—dubbing, polypropylene floating yarn, and hackle.

The fly starts with a Fulling Mill 5050 Ultimate dry fly hook in size 16, but I also tie it in 14’s and 18’s. After getting the hook firmly secured in the jaws of your tying vise, load a bobbin with a fairly thin thread, like this tan UTC 70. Get the thread started on the hook shank, leaving a little space behind the eye and, after taking a few wraps rearward, snip off the excess tag.

Pull down on your bobbin to expose about 3” of tying thread. You can use whatever dubbing you like here, but for me, Super Fine is the way to go. This is a nice olive color. Place a small clump in the fingertips of your left hand, which is holding the bobbin. Squeeze the dubbing tight and pull straight up on the top end of it with the fingertips of your right hand. This will get the fibers oriented roughly parallel to your tying thread. Twist the dubbing onto the thread to begin creating an extremely thin dubbing noodle. Leave the lower end untwisted so you can kind of weave in the material from a second pinch.

Begin taking wraps with the noodle so the dubbing begins right at the top of the hook bend, then take touching to slightly overlapping wraps forward, up the hook shank. On caddis dries like this, I prefer to taper just a little bit from a wider body in the back to a thinner one in the front. You want to dub almost all the way up to the hook eye then relocate your bare tying thread to about 1 1/2 eye-lengths behind the back edge of the hook eye.

The wing and head of the fly are created using a short segment of medium dun para post material that has been treated with Water Shed, to help it remain buoyant. With one end of the material extending about 1/4” beyond the hook bend, begin binding the material to the top of the shank, behind the eye, like so. The dubbing below will help to keep the material from spinning around the shank.

For hackle, the choice is yours. Here, I’m going to use a single dark barred dun feather. Measure to ensure the hackle fibers are the correct length, or maybe slightly oversized, before pulling the feather free from the skin. With the shiny side of the feather facing you, strip the lower webby fibers from both sides of the stem then trim the bottom of the feather into a small triangular tie-in anchor. I like to create a slightly larger one then shorten it, as seen here. Strip a few more fibers from just the top side of the stem to help the feather wrap correctly. With the shiny side of the feather still facing you, lay the tie-in anchor against the near side of the hook and take nice tight thread wraps to secure it, all the way up to behind the hook eye.

Get hold of the feather’s tip with hackle pliers, and begin making forward, touching wraps with it to cover up the bare thread wraps, 5 or 6 turns should be plenty. When you reach your tying thread, use it to firmly anchor the feather’s tip then snip that excess tip off close. Pull back on the forward-pointing material and begin taking thread wraps behind the hook eye to help prop it up, about like so.

Reach for your whip finish tool and use it to do a 5 or 6 turn, back to front, whip finish then seat the knot well and snip or cut your tying thread free. Trim the rearward-pointing material off at an angle so it extends just a little ways beyond the back edge of the hook. Then trim the front part off to form a small head on the fly.

Next, trim most all of the downward-facing hackle fibers off. This will allow the fly to ride flat on the water’s surface. Pick up your head cement and apply a small drop to the thread wraps behind the hook eye, to help with durability.

By varying the fly’s size and its coloration, you can create a multitude of caddis dry imitations. I just love this pattern for its simplicity, effectiveness and versatility.