Once you start tying flies, your imagination inevitably drifts towards crafting a standout pattern of your own, a fly that anglers will use decades from now. It’s one way to leave a lasting legacy in this sport, and a great thought to entertain your own vanity while struggling through a difficult batch of flies.
The flies that do last forever, though, tend to be created in times of need, by folks who didn’t care much for fame, and were more concerned about catching fish. Specifically, they created flies to solve a problem, not to fill another slot in that season’s fly catalog. That’s certainly the case with Al Troth, the inventor of the legendary Elk Hair Caddis.
The Accidental Dry Fly
Al Troth lived in Pennsylvania, and his local trout stream was Loyalsock Creek. In 1957, he noticed a particular green caddis hatch that had all the trout’s attention, and he didn’t have quite the fly in his box to imitate it. So, he went home and sat down at his vise, working his way through ideas for what was initially supposed to be a wet fly. Troth wanted a fly he could swing through the riffles, imitating emerging caddis as they shot to the surface.
Some hackle around a lightly dubbed body, and an elk hair wing, sounded like a good combination to add some movement and shape to the fly. What Troth didn’t anticipate, however, was just how well elk hair floats on the water. That wing, combined with a stiffer hackle, created an accidentally great dry fly.
Troth kept his creation under wraps, relatively speaking, and it wasn’t until the ’70s that the fly gained national attention. By that point, Troth had moved from Pennsylvania to Montana, and he ran into the legendary Bud Lily. Lily and Troth talked flies, and Lily started selling Troth’s Elk Hair Caddis in his shop in West Yellowstone.
That move made the fly interesting enough on a local level that, in 1978, Troth was asked to write a story about his fly for Fly Fisherman Magazine. That move poured gas on the fire, and the fly has sold like hotcakes ever since.
Troth’s Legacy
You might think Troth got lucky with the Elk Hair Caddis. After all, how can you set out to build a wet fly and end up with one of the most effective dry flies ever created?
Well, Troth wasn’t just some average angler. He was a longtime fly tier and guide. After moving to Montana, he settled near Dillon and started an outfitting business on Southwest Montana’s legendary waters. Troth created a few other flies, including another standout, his “Gulper Special.”
This callibaetis imitation was created for the large trout that “gulp” big mayflies off the surface of Hebgen Lake in Montana, and you can still find it for sale today.
Troth unfortunately passed away in 2012 from Parkinson’s, so he’s no longer with us. But his flies, and his love for Southwest Montana, have certainly lived on.