Cul de Canard & Amadou 25Jun21

I've been tying and fishing a lot more CDC (cul de canard) flies recently - whether fished dry, emerger, or wet. I tie loop wing emergers (BWO & PMD) and mole flies mostly with CDC. I prefer the natural color as it seems more oily and bouyant but I used the medium dun (blue-grey) as well. I often just use the already harvested "puffs" but many use the feathers.

Cul de canard comes from wild mallard duck's preen gland area near their tail. The oils there keep ducks water repellent. CDC feathers are super webby and fibrous and loaded with the gland's oils. This naturally oiled duck fuzz makes great flies but they need to be treated carefully and are not too rugged; they pretty quickly get soaked during fishing and need to dry out fully before reuse and are lame if they get too dirty - CDC cannot be treated with floatant, except CDC oil itself, and then the CDC must be completely dry to apply the oil. All is not lost in the field though as a special Amadou patch can be used to dry them out well, and it dries other flies fine too. 

Amadou is a specific fungus known as hoof fungus, horseshoe fungus, beech tinder and more. The word is derived from French and probably means kindling. The patches are made from sections of the material harvested from birch, ash, and beech trees in England & Ireland. It also can be used as kindling or tinder to start a fire. It is super light, dry and absorbent.

 

Now go tie some CDC and catch more fish ~ dry them out with Amadou.