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Written tying guide

Orvis / Tightline Holy Grail beadhead caddis emerger

6 numbered steps and a complete materials list for this dressing.

Read the tying steps
Emerger / Pattern notes

Caddis Emerger

A weighted Holy Grail-style caddis emerger with hare dubbing, flash rib, pheasant wingcase and partridge legs.

The source index calls its fly a Bead Head Caddis Emerger but supplies no recipe for the photograph. This page offers the separately documented Holy Grail Caddis Emerger as one named beadhead exemplar, not as an identification of the source fly.

At the vise
Intermediate
Common sizes
#14
From hook to fly

At the vise.

6 steps

Work through the numbered steps in order, using the materials list and written proportions as your guide.

  1. Seat bead with eye room

    Slide the gold bead onto the hook and start red thread behind it. Keep a full eye length of bare shank ahead of the bead for the wingcase and partridge collar.

  2. Dub and rib the abdomen

    Anchor pearl Flashabou down into the bend. Dub a slim hare-mask abdomen to the hook-point region, then spiral the flash forward in open turns and secure it.

  3. Build the thorax

    Tie pheasant-tail fibers on top behind the bead with free length pointing rearward. Dub a short, fuller hare-mask thorax and bring the thread in front of the bead.

  4. Pull over the wingcase

    Draw the pheasant-tail fibers over the thorax and bead. Bind them in front of the bead with tight thread turns and trim their ends.

  5. Add partridge legs

    Tie a prepared partridge feather by its tip in front of the bead, fold its fibers backward, and wind roughly two sparse turns.

  6. Finish the red head

    Secure and trim the feather stem. Sweep the legs rearward, make a small red head, whip finish and touch the thread wraps with cement.

Beyond the bench

On the water.

Dead-drift the weighted fly below the film and let it rise gently near the end of the drift when pupae are moving upward.

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Recipe references

Original written instructions adapted from the sources below. Materials and methods may vary between versions.

For the same fly box.

Beadhead EmergerEmerger · #16Chuck’s EmergerEmerger · #18–20Hexagenia CrippleEmerger · #8–10