The fly box · No. 15 of 36
CDC Shuttlecock
A midge or small olive at the moment of hatching, body hanging below the film.
- Kind
- Emerger
- Hook sizes
- 14–20
- Season
- Spring, summer, autumn, winter
- For
- Trout and grayling
- At the vice
- An easy tie
The dressing
| Hook | Light-wire curved emerger hook, barbless or barb flattened, sizes 14–20 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Olive, brown or black, 8/0 (70 denier) or finer |
| Tail | None |
| Body | Tying thread or a stripped peacock quill, slim, taken partway round the bend |
| Rib | Fine wire, or the natural banding of the quill |
| Hackle | None |
| Wing | Two to four natural CDC feather tips, tied in as one bunch pointing forward and up over the eye |
| Also | Thorax: a small pinch of hare’s ear dubbing behind the wing |
Tying it
- Run the thread partway round the bend and tie in the fine wire.
- Wind the thread forward into a slim, tapered body.
- Rib with the wire in open turns and tie off.
- Align the CDC tips and tie them in behind the eye, pointing forward.
- Dub a small thorax behind the wing to prop it upright.
- Whip finish under the wing, behind the eye.
- Trim the wing to about the length of the body.
Fishing it
When fish are bulging or sipping just under the surface and ignoring a floating dun, this is the next thing to try. Fish it on 6X (0.13 mm), or 7X (0.10 mm) in the smallest sizes, cast a metre ahead of the rise and left alone. Wet the body with saliva so it cuts through the film; only the wing should be dry. It is effective on slow pools and on stillwaters during a midge hatch alike.
Where it comes from
The shuttlecock style grew up among European tiers as cul de canard came into general use, and no single inventor is agreed upon. A tuft of CDC is tied in facing forward over the eye, so the fly hangs from the surface by its wing with the body dangling beneath. That is the posture of a hatching insect at its most helpless.