X-FACTOR do you have it?

[Andre]

Nice Korrie....You should launch the fly at the "XXXXXXXX.....CPS festival" ....:biggrin:

[Jax]

HI Korrie; Like your idea of tissues for drying off the CDC fly it makes sense and will not damage the fly.

The longevity of your fly after being mauled by a lot of fish seems to back this up.

Seems I stand corrected and must pay more attention to how I handle CDC flies. Living and learning and still having FUN.

[Korrie]

I had a couple of chats with some of the forumers about tying the X-Factor dry fly.
a. before you start, sort your CDC feathers, in a packet there are so many sizes shapes and textures.
I take a packet, and spread the feathers on the table. then I put feathers that are the same size, texture and barb length together.
making up pairs. I then take the 2 feathers and clamp the end of the stem in the vice, and do a couple of thread wraps over the end and whip finish the 2 feather together.
When tying the it is easy to take 2 feathers out of the packet, matching in size, shape, texture and barb length.

b. Because of the difference in shape, size, texture, density of barbs etc in the CDC feathers, it is very seldom that you will find that your X-Factor dry flies will all look 100% the same.

c. remember when pulling the CDC feather down/out, the form the wings, the torque on the feathers will decrease, as the feathers gets thinner, as you pull. The tying thread will be "looser" around the shank. if not carefull, the feathers will slip to the side of the hook shank.

d. the bottom sections of the feathers stems, after trimming off, keep in a little contianer. there are a lot of the CDC barbs left on the bigger/longer feathers. You can trim this off and have lovely cdc dubbing for other flies or for the dubbing of the thorax/wings section.

e. the wings can sometimes be a bit wide apart or to flat. Use the cdc dubbing to mould/form the wing in the position that you want to be on the finished fly

[PieterS]

Just saw the article on Tom Sutcliffe's website, Looks like a good pattern!

[Korrie]

Another very interesting thing, I noticed, with the X-Factor dry fly.
When put in water, because not all the CDC barbs, are the same length, some of the CDC barbs do penetrate the meniscus film.
The couple of barbs, are below the surface, with the tiny air bubbles trapped in the micro barbs, it looks amazing.
Combine that with the reflection in the surface film, of the barbs and air bubbles, it makes an amazing image.

[Korrie]

Compare the foot print of the X-factor and the Emergency, with both I have tried to create as natural foot print and profile as possible

[Zoran]

Korrie, that's an excellent fly , I like it and thanks for your efforts to put it here .
Sorry if I mess your thread, but CDC are my favoured material, and one of the reason I am obsessed with FF .

In my country CDC flies are number one , and more or less CDC's are invented there.
One of the main reason is unbelievable clear waters, where any other material may looks like a Elephant in glass store .
The most famous CDC tier was Dr Marijan Fratnik from Yugoslavia, Slovenija ,who was one of the first who published receipt for proper CDC fly.
That's why we call that F-Fly .
Marc Pettitjean was his student a long time ago.

In my fly box , probably 80,if not 90% of flies are based on CDC, not only dries ,but wet and nymphs as well.

But, here is a little secret which I do not think everyone may know .So since you like CDC as well, here we go :

For proper dry CDC fly ,one need to catch Wild Duck or Goose ,but male is better , and to find 7-12 gland feathers around duck oil gland .

ONLY those dozen or so feathers around the gland are top CDC feathers for the proper F -Fly or for the proper Fant fly .
(F-ant , meaning Ant fly tied out from CDC feathers )
Such a flies, can be fished for many dry presentations before they start to sink .
I replace the fly only after fish is caught, not before that.

One hook- one CDC feather for the wing .
One Duck, 7-12 CDC F Flies .
(for #16-18-20 size hook)

I am lucky enough to still have a few dozen of such a proper flies , and I am using them only if nothing else work.
Believe me, fish CANNOT resist to such a F fly , it has been proven hundreds of times , again and again.

So, in this case , this is X factor if you ask me .

More, in the case when fish is actually feeding on emergers and we see lots of fish activities , we might think it is a time for dry fly .

But, it is not , fish is fooling us ,simple as is ...there is big different in fish surface activity between dry fly and emergers feeding...

In that case, I just sharply ,but gently strip the line , get my F fly bellow the water surface for a few seconds ,and wait ...

The take is happening just before the fly emerges on the surface ,meaning in up-lift mode ,he he he ....

One of the most exciting way of fly fishing on the earth !!!
This is why CDC feather MUST be perfect ,coming from the oil gland.

In such a times lots of guys stay without fish ,since they fish dry flies instead of emergers ..

As the name say, emerger fly must go up (to emerge) not to sink (to going down) ..that's secret of oil gland CDC's , or "Air Bubble Trapper"...
F fly, in one cast can be both emerger and dry fly ....

And you are , Korrie, 100% right , that's the biggest X factor with CDC's, no one material can be like that ... ...

Another factor is that one must use very tiny tippet , max 5x on # 12 , and 6,7 even tinier as we going smaller hooks.
I am using 6X on # 12 , and then 7 X for smaller .
This was one of the reason I switched to Fast Epic Glass rods....
Up to date no any tippet snapping , after 2 years and probably few dozen of Yellows in a +- 3 kg range ...
(talkin' about lake fishing, on the Vaal is different situation)

Anyway, generic feathers could be also fantastic if you find proper supplier .

Few years a go, when I met Dave Weaver from Sterkies , I introduce him my CDC flies ,and he was so happy to accept it ...Today, his dry fly collection is probably 50% CDC , the rest are Dr Hans beetles and hoppers.

There is excerpt from the article in SA FF magazine ,which Dave wrote after we met for the first time ,sometimes in early 2007 ....

You can see Carl Nicholson , Dave and my self on the photos, in the times before Face Book euphoria

http://www.africanangler.com/fly_article.asp?id=385

Cheers,
Zoran

ps
and yes, Dave made mistake calling me Russian in that article ,where I am a little bit worse than them