February 25, 2024
By Charlie Craven
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As many readers know by now, I generally find Perdigons and their cousins to be pretty boring. Simple thread bodies, oversized beads, and little else. They don’t do much to flip my switch as a creative, problem-solving tier, though I have witnessed firsthand how well these simple flies actually work. I can’t say I have changed my opinion much, but Zach VanDeHey’s approach to his Picky Eater Perdigon gives me hope for the future.
VanDeHey, a 39-year-old Oregonian, has spent time as a competition angler and has gone as far as qualifying for the fly-fishing national championship this year in North Carolina. It’s the third step in qualifying for Fly Fishing Team USA, but previous commitments will keep him from competing along with the likes of another Perdi-lover you may recognize, Lance Egan. Nonetheless, VanDeHey credits competition fishing with really upping his game on the water, as well as sharpening his thought process at the vise, and I couldn’t agree more. Like it or not, competition angling is driving many of the advancements in our sport, and it’s been really fun to watch it happen. That’s not an easy sentence for an old curmudgeon like me to write, but it’s the truth.
VanDeHey hatched the idea for his Picky Eater while fishing a pre-hatch situation on the Deschutes River. His feeling was that his conventionally tied Perdigons were sinking too fast. Yes, that sentence struck me as odd, too. The entire premise behind slender-bodied nymphs with big tungsten beads is to plummet through the water column to the bottom. But these fish were adjusting to insect activity and were feeding in the middle of the water column. VanDeHey surmised his fly was dropping through the feeding zone too quickly and not spending enough time in the prime layer where the fish were most active. Like many good fly fishers, he found this little puzzle stuck in his head and rattled around for a few days before he came up with a solution.
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VanDeHey got to work on the vise to design a fly that would sink more slowly and miraculously spawned the brilliant idea of not only downsizing the bead, but also adding a dubbing-loop CDC collar to function as a parachute and reduce the rate of descent. This flowing CDC collar adds tons of fluid motion to the fly, and at the same time creates enough drag and lift by surface area to keep the fly drifting mid-column.
VanDeHey, a 39-year-old Oregonian, has spent time as a competition angler and has gone as far as qualifying for the fly-fishing national championship this year in North Carolina. The impetus for this fly was initially a heavy spring Baetis hatch, so VanDeHey tied the first iterations in the olive version shown here. He now ties it in many colors, with brown and red among his favorites. He varies the colors of the beads, quills, and the hotspots, but remains steadfast on the use of natural coq de León and CDC as well as simple fox squirrel dubbing for the thorax on all versions. He prefers copper or silver beads and ties variations with varying bead sizes to cover the myriad of conditions he might find on the water. In my own experience, flies like this work best in smaller sizes like 16 to 20, but I have had plenty of other days when the fish are just looking for a bigger tasty bite that comes right to them.
VanDeHey started with the requisite jig hook and slotted bead, and added the equally creative coq de León tail, but then he went off on a tangent and created the slender body using a stripped and dyed peacock quill. For anyone not familiar with the beauty of these quills, stripped peacock creates a stunning dark-edged rib as they are wrapped around the hook shank. It’s a dead ringer for so many aquatic insects. VanDeHey shunned the usual Perdigon UV resin coating over the top of the quill in favor of an undercoat of thick Super Glue, and finds that the bodies hold together wonderfully with this cleaner and easier option.
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He then went on to add a loop-dubbed CDC collar, but first added a slight squirrel hair dubbing thorax to help prop up the collar and keep it standing out from the hook and not slicking back. As a nod to the venue, VanDeHey also added a tiny, tasteful hotspot of Glo-Brite thread to make the fly stand out a bit. The finished product remains a simple fly, but with key design elements that make it so much more appealing to tiers and anglers alike. The future is in good hands.
Picky Eater Perdigon Recipe Step-by-Step Instructions for the Picky Eater Perdigon Fly Step 1. Place the bead onto the hook and start the thread. Build a small thread dam to hold the bead in place, then dress the shank back to the bend. Even the tips of a clump of Coq de León tailing fibers and tie them in so they are about a shank length long at the bend, then wrap forward over their butts to just short of the bead. Clip the excess. Step 2. Soak a bunch of stripped and dyed peacock quills in warm water for about five minutes. Select a single quill and tie it in at the bend about halfway up its total length with the dark edge facing down. Wrap forward over the tip end of the quill to just short of the bead, forming a smooth thread underbody as you go. Step 3. Spread a light coat of medium-thickness Super Glue down on the thread underbody, then grab the butt end of the quill with your hackle pliers and wrap it forward in slightly overlapping turns highlighting the dark-edged rib, all the way up to the back of the bead. Tie the quill off with a couple of firm thread wraps and clip the excess. Step 4. Dub a tiny ball of squirrel dubbing to just about a thread width from the bead. Make sure to keep this ball thin and small. Step 5. Tie a piece of Glo-Brite floss in just behind the bead at the center of its length and fold the front end back to form a double layer strand. Anchor the fold in place with a turn or two of thread. Step 6. Form a 3-inch dubbing loop with your thread right behind the bead. Place your dubbing whirl in the bottom of the loop to hold the legs open. Step 7. Select a dense CDC feather and preen the fibers so they stand out from the center quill. The feather in this photo has been used for another fly—thus the clipped fibers on the right side—so keep in mind each feather gets you two flies. Place the fibers between the dubbing loop strands and pull down on the whirl to tighten the thread down onto the fibers. Step 8. Use a long pair of sharp scissors and cut the fibers from the center stem, leaving them pinched between the dubbing loop strands. Pinch the base of the loop under the CDC fibers and spin the dubbing whirl to create a CDC rope for the collar. Step 9. Wrap the CDC rope two to three turns right behind the bead and clip the excess. Sweep the fibers back after each turn just as you would do on a wet fly collar. A completed Picky Eater Perdigon. Whip-finish and clip the thread. Using the tips of your scissors, cut the Glo-Brite floss to about half the body length. Add a thin coat of Super Glue to the thread wrap behind the bead and go fishing. Charlie Craven co-owns Charlie’s Fly Box in Arvada, Colorado. He is the author of four books, most recently Tying Streamers: Essential Flies and Techniques for the Top Patterns (Stackpole Books, 2020).
