DHE v CDC/Elk

[east wind]

Two cracking river patterns. The DHE has certainly helped my catch rate, and once I learned to hash one together gives a nice slim upward tapering profile. It's when the big olive upwings appear that it becomes very, very valuable and mostly I stick one on before a floating dun for instance. So at these times the DHE is king, or is it?

The CDC/Elk is something I've been using more of each year. When I pick one out I wonder how this fly works. It's like a bundle of thistle down (well mine are anyway) and I can't see a shape at all. But it works, and very well at that. For me the CDC/Elk works when nothing is on the water to when trout are taking small stuff, even smuts. Once I get on to the small streams and burns one in a #16 is all I need.

It has helped me out on so many different situations, but this year I've found out it works at the times when I would previously be tying on a DHE. Bang, offers straight off and on fish that had refused the DHE.

So.... during my long spells staring at riseless water I've tried to come up with a theory, and here it is.

The DHE drifts down in a lifeless fashion, no real movement, perhaps due to the body being hung, almost anchored under the surface and also the compactness of the fly (well mine are anyway) with no movement.

The CDC/Elk sits higher and seems to bounce with the drift and turns either way along with the small currents very nicely but not in dragging sort of way. And of course the cdc strands must also give the appearance of life. All in I think it offers a decent representation of a big olive trying to unravel and that can be tempting to the troot.

I need both, but over the season I know which one I need more.

A CDC/Elk getting slowly ripped up during a hatch of big olive upwings yesterday
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[Wildfisher]

Yeah, CDC+ Elk is a marvelous fly. I too have caught fish on it when other flies have failed.

I reckon it's the legs, not saying these CDC strands represent legs per sey  more that they impart movement in an otherwise lifeless fly as you have noted yourself. Same goes for terrestrial patterns with long thin rubber  legs. I am however far less convinced with standard hoppers with knotted pheasant tail legs as they  seem a bit stiff and lifeless and in some tyings they are on the top of the fly.

[east wind]

They are both the top flies of different stages, the DHE the emerger stage, the CDC/Elk the hatched fly(and crippled) both the most generic and flexible of their type, with these two you don't need the rest, but you need both,

I'm thinking they can both represent a fly at the same stage. I tend to hedge ma bets by tying CDC/Elk on a curved hook but its still a higher riding fly. Although I saw it as an all rounder I've found its good enough to match and better the DHE when its (DHE) at the most effective period - during hatches of olive uprights. These flies don't hang below the surface motionless for long (like buzzers), they are straight on the surface trying to unravel wings and legs and that's where the twitching of a CDC/Elk comes good.

Mac   

[Wildfisher]

Only issue I have with the CDC+ Elk is the CDC    :lol: 

As a material it's a high maintenance pain, unusable when you are catching loads of small fish, but then it's not really needed under those circumstances I suppose.

[east wind]

Only issue I have with the CDC+ Elk is the CDC    :lol: 

As a material it's a high maintenance pain, unusable when you are catching loads of small fish, but then it's not really needed under those circumstances I suppose.

Aye, I've stopped using it on its own for wings or posts. Looks nice but gives up in the floating department too easily.

[Part-time]

CDC&Elk is one of my favorites; mainly on lochs rather than rivers but I don't fish rivers that much though.

I'd agree the movement of the CDC strands giving the appearance of life is one of the things about the fly; even in calm conditions fished static the water currents will still move them when other materials like rubber legs, hair, hackles wouldn't or need pulled to work.

My other theory (totally unscientific as all my theories are is that its a very good general imitation of all kinds of terrestrial flies. Tied with roe deer hair mine look worryingly like clegs - I've even tried to swat them a few times when glimpsed out of the corner of my eye

I do like the DHE but tend to use it more when there's a hatch on.

[Darwin]

Both are great patterns that I keep in my box, I do like the new improved DHE a bit more.  The Bullet from Chris Sandford is another set that I am excited about trying out on my next trip. 
http://www.chrissandford.com/why-do-they-bite-the-bullet

[martin devine]

the cdc & elk has been a long time favourite of mine and works better than the dhe for me but I do use both.

[deergravy]

Have to say I've never felt the need to tie on a CDC-n-elk, DHE does the business every time in a hatch of upwings, also for midge-feeding risers on a flat calm loch. Basically, any time Im targetting rising fish, it's the first (and usually last) fly out of the box.
Squirrel fur body for olives on the river, wee black one in a buzzer hatch, great big olive green one for mayfly, hare's ear for everything else.
My favourite 'dry'

[scotty9]

Two great flies, I'm from the school of Deergravy in relation to the DHE, thanks Dave