This fly floats like a cork and fishes like there's no tomorrow! Something about this fly makes it a good pattern when the caddis females are abundant. But I also fish it when it's not a lot of caddis activity. As a general fly for daytime nearby overhanging trees or other things that creates some shadow the fly can catch fish all day. Often there are some sporadic caddis activity nearby shadow areas even by species that lay their eggs at dusk. On a 'caddis river' in july and august such places are worth studying even at daytime when nothing else is happening on the river.

The trimmed palmer hackle imitates the crawling legs of an egg layer on the surface. It also gives a segmented look to the dubbed body. With too many legs it's all exaggregated, of course, but many of my flies are exaggregations of the insects. The two wings together creates a tent like caddis wing that goes all the way down to the surface. This gives a great wing silhouette from underneath, but it also supports the fly.

Tying instruction:
1) Pull a single ply of poly yarn in half (or in three pieces for a small fly) and tie in the back wing as a tail. Tie in the hackle at the front of the body.
2) Dub the body back to the end of the hook shank.
3) Wrap a palmer hackle.
4) Rib the body with the tying thread towards the eye.
5) Trim the hackle at top and bottom. Tie in the wing at the front. Clip the two wings as shown on the picture, and leave a small head.