Tying Instructions: Sloan's Caddis Paralyzer

1. Start the thread behind the eye and lay a foundation to the midpoint of the hook shank. Now, wrap the thread back towards the eye halfway. This location (25%) is also about 1/2 the hook gap.
Step One
2. Cut some Calf Body Hair from the hide. Comb out the soft underfur and stack the reamining to even the tips. Pull the hair out of the stacker with your right hand, as the tips will be facing right when you tie in.
Step Two
3.Holding the hair in your left hand, you can measure the needed length, this should be just less than twice the hook gap.
Step Three
4. Secure the hair to the top of the shank, making your first wrap around the postion of the hair that you measured for length. The placement of your grip on the hair defines this position. Next, wrap more tight wraps towards the back of the hair. You can minimize spreading of the hair by applying extra tension to the thread in a up-down motion, not side to side. Lift the butt ends of the hair to create a tapered cut and secure this tapered base with thread wraps. You should be finished about the midpoint of the hook shank. Step Four
5. Place a piece of ribbing material below the shank and secure with thread wraps going almost to the bend of the hook. Next, apply some flash material to the bend of the hook for a shuck. On the Caddis Paralyzer, the flash is attached at the beginning of the abdomen for an underwing in Step 9. As an underwing, trim the flash so that is does not exceed end of the abdomen. Step Five
6.Apply dubbing to the thread and slide the dubbing up the thread until it just touches the hook shank. Applying one wrap, you can lock these fibers in and twist the material into a tighter mass.
Step Six
7. Dub a nicely tapered body. The body will cover approximately 70% of the hook shank, leaving 30% for the head. Attach a ribbing hackle just behind the base of the calf hair. I'm using a size 20 hackle.

Step Seven
8. Palmer the hackle in 4 evenly spaced wraps to the back of the abdomen. Take the copper wire ribbing and secure the hackle with it by making two initial wraps at the back of the abdomen and then spiral the wire forward to the end of the abdomen, tie it off and cut it.
Step Eight
9. Cut the hackle tip that is at the back of the abdomen tight to the fly. On these smaller sizes, you may need to trim the hackle fibers.
Step Nine
10. Comb and Stack a clump of Natural Elk Body Hair. Orient the tube so that your left hand pulls out the material.
Step Ten
11. Tie in the hair at the beginning of the abdomen with the length being just beyond the end of the hook. The wing itself should encompass the top 180 degrees of the hook.
Step Eleven
12. Lift the butts of the wing hair so that you can trim without capturing any of the claf body hair in front of it. Trim as closely as possible and secure with additional thread wraps. Step Twelve
13. Wrap forward and post the Calf Body Hair. Wrap the thread up high enough on the post to get 3-4 wraps of hackle around it.
Step Thirteen
14. Tie in a hackle of the appropriate size and secure it to the post, shiny side out. Bring the thread back to where the wing was tied in at and dub a tapered thorax from the base of the wing to the eye of the hook.
Step Fourteen
15. Take the Hackle and make 3-4 wraps down the post to form the parachute. Tie the hackle off right behind the eye of the hook. To keep from trapping fibers, I pull back on the hackle and bring the thread up against the guill just behind the eye. If you pull the hackle away from you, the fibers will open wide enough for the thread to secure bare quill. Then, I slide the bobbin up the thread getting it close to the eye and make 2-3 thread wraps using the end of the bobbin to push away the fibers to keep from trapping them with the thread wraps.

Step Fifteen
16. Now, you can lift up the parachute fibers near the eye with your left hand and secure with additional thread wraps. I use a half hitch tool to secure the thread with about 3-4 hitches. Clip any stray hackle fibers.
Step Sixteen
17. Take a drop of head cement and put it on the post at the upper most wrap of hackle to ensure that it does not slip off.
Step Seventeen
18. The finished Paralyzer.
Step Eighteen

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