the Unsinkable

The Unsinkable is a great dry pattern to use as a Caddis adult. Being made with a foam overlay, the fly is.... well unsinkable. Start by creating a thread base back to the bend of the hook. Tie in a strand of orange floss and set it aside and out of the way. You will use it to secure the foam and create a ribbing. Use 2 mil foam - tan color here - to lay across the top of the hook. Taper one end of the foam either with your scissors or a heat from a lighter. Tie in the foam at the hook bend with the tapered end extending a little bit beyond the end of the hook. For dubbing, I'm using a cinnamon colored Hare dubbing to help give the fly a buggier look. Pull the foam back so that you are dubbing underneath where the foam will lie. Create an even dubbed body up to about two eye lengths behind the eye. Now lay the foam over the top of the hook and over the eye. Wrap the floss - over the top of the foam - taking open wraps, securing the foam and creating a nice ribbing. I try not to pull the floss too tight on these wraps, as I like to show the color of the floss. Secure the floss on the hook shank under the foam and remove the excess. At this point, I'll use Velcro to tease out some of the dubbing fibers. Don't stroke the Velcro too hard or you will pull away some of the floss. Use your thread to wrap over the top of the foam beyond where your dubbing ended. This will create the base for the hackle. Make sure to leave at least an eye length of space behind the hook eye. Tie in a furnace hackle feather, and hackle the thorax with touching wraps. The last wrap of the hackle should go onto the hook shank, under the foam, and right behind the eye. Secure and remove the hackle feather. Pull everything back and whip finish the fly. Finally, pull the foam over the hook eye, and cut it off about an eye length beyond the hook eye.