classic Michigan dry fly · date unknown (Halladay's main tying years were about 1920 to 1930)
Halladay's Michigan Caddis
Also called Caddis Fly (Halladay)
Unverified origin Recipe and the hatch-postcard story come only from one Deschaine column built on Halladay family information; the TADL postcard confirms only that Halladay advertised his guiding by postcard.
History
Halladay called this simply his Caddis Fly, and it is also known as Halladay's Michigan Caddis. Despite the name it was tied for the Hex (Hexagenia limbata), the big nighttime mayfly hatch that older Michigan anglers call the caddis hatch. It has a kapok body ribbed with yellow yarn, a bushy fox squirrel tail, spent white deer-hair wings and two brown hackles.
According to Tom Deschaine, Halladay mailed postcards to his regular clients to let them know the hatch had started. A 1938 postcard advertising his guiding on the Boardman near Mayfield survives in the Kingsley Branch Library's Halladay collection, though it is not a hatch notice.
It is a different fly from the deer-hair Michigan Caddis on this site, which has a spun and clipped deer-hair body and grizzly hackle-tip wings.
Materials
| Hook | Mustad dry, long shank, size 6 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 6/0 |
| Tail | Fox squirrel tail, bushy |
| Body | Natural kapok |
| Rib | Yellow yarn |
| Wing | White deer hair, spent |
| Hackle | Brown, two feathers |
Sources
- Deschaine, T. "From the Vise of the Mayfield Tyer." Fly Anglers Online, January 27, 2014.
- "Len Halladay fly fishing postcard, 1938." Edith Halladay Blackhurst Collection, Kingsley Branch Library, via TADL Local History.
- Deschaine, T. "Michigan Caddis." Just Old Flies, Fly Anglers Online, 2010.
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No photo yet. Every photo on michfly is of a fly tied for the site, so they're added a few at a time.
Original recipe cards for many Michigan patterns are kept at the Michigan Dry Flies archive, built by the late Tom Deschaine.