CDC

CDC

by Kuba Chruszczewski

                  CDC (short for French cul de canard - duck's back), is a material that about 20 years ago made quite a stir among enthusiasts who were either amateur or professional in the making of artificial flies. Used for fly construction as early as the 1920s, the material is now widely used, in fact, it is difficult today to find a fly fisherman in whose box there would not be a sizable set of flies made using CDC. Initially, the material was used to make dry flies. Later, however, some of its characteristics were discovered, which placed it among the materials useful for tying wet flies, nymphs, and even streamers, or trout and salmon flies.

    But one step at a time - what is a CDC?

 Every bird grooms its feathers by, among other things, constantly oiling them to make them waterproof, this is especially true of water birds. For this purpose, birds are equipped with a poop gland, located on the back of the bird, a little above the tail. This gland secretes a substance, which the bird distributes on its feathers using its beak. And it is in the area of this gland, under the layer of dorsal cover feathers, that there are dozens of feathers with a particular structure and texture. This is what the CDC is. These feathers are very light and delicate, and at the same time - for such a delicate structure - very resistant. A fly built from such feathers can easily withstand thousands of inter-strikes aimed at drying it while fishing „dry”.

At the same time, CDC feathers are so soft that they easily yield to the airstream during flight and do not cause the leader to twist, which is often the case when fishing a fly with wings constructed of stiffer materials. The shape of the feather itself causes the fly to land gently on the water, like a parachute. Further - the CDC feather is semi-transparent, wings made of it look very natural.

    From CDC feathers, whole, or from bunches of their rays, neat crinkle-type flies are made, with wings laid flat, can be tied at different angles to the torso , up to vertically set wings in mayfly-type flies. Such double wings can be arranged in a V-shape, or laid out completely flat when making a spent type fly. In dry flies from a CDC feather, you can make a blackberry - winding the feather itself, or captured in a loop of the leading thread and twisted with it its rays. Such a blackberry is used in flies without wings, or in parachute flies. Also, the torso of a dry fly can be constructed from our material, as is the case in the legendary, perhaps most famous fly from CDC - the famous Fratnik's Fly, or F Fly. (Marjan Fratnik, a Slovenian, developed his design and described it in the Slovenian fishing magazine „Ribic” in 1983. I came across a description of this fly , and an article about the CDC in the American bimonthly magazine „Fly Rod & Reel” a few years later). This fly is a rare example of the ingenious combination of maximum simplicity and extreme versatility, which translates into its incredible effectiveness, as I was able to experience more than once. The body is made of a CDC feather twisted and wrapped around the hook shank and the wings, of course, also CDC, located at an angle of about 30-40 degrees - that's the whole fly. Having in the box several sizes in several shades, you can effectively fish on this fly practically all season. Good buoyancy of the material allows you to build very interesting surface nymphs from CDC. A variety of emergers equipped with a pack and sail from CDC float well in the water line perfectly imitating the insect in the last stage of transformation into a perfect form.

   CDC feather (by Polish fly fishermen commonly called „duck d... ), also has some features that work well in various „wet” constructions. The soft, long CDC blackberry with which we equip the imitation of the bottom of the caddisfly through its pulsating work in the water adds life to the fly. The ability to hold small air bubbles in its structure makes wet flies shine attractively. Hence the use of brightly colored CDC feathers for trout, salmon and streamer flies.

    So it would seem that we have in our hands the perfect material from which we will make all types of flies and nothing else will be needed.... Of course, this is not the case. Fortunately, there are materials that have been proven over the years, expended in numerous battles, which nothing can replace - at least I hope so. So it is worth taking advantage of all the novelties that appear from time to time in the workshops of „spinners” and - using them sensibly and in moderation - do not forget about the classics and traditions.