Cul de Canard (CDC) Overkill and critical analysis
So it's safe to say that pretty much every other dry fly you see anywhere on social media, Instagram, YouTube, Internet blogs, fly fishing catalogs, or maybe even in your own fly box, is a CDC pattern. Cul de Canard, or “duck bottom” in French, is here to stay. Tie a blob of it on a shank, and you're off to the races. Make it look like a happy accident; “whamo,” it's cool because it's impressionistic? It's getting ridiculous. So before you start writing your hate emails and scathing DM's read and try to get in my head with this, or not.
There are a vast number of materials out there in the fly tying universe. The properties of CDC are as follows: it's very buoyant, it dries easily, it is impressionistic, it is extremely forgiving (i.e., in its sculpting properties), it's very easy to use, and it comes in a variety of colors, including its natural given colorway. Now, if we compare it to other natural and synthetic fibers like snowshoe rabbit, genetic or non-genetic hackle fiber, and the myriad of synthetic yarns, hair dubbing, and soft hackle fibers, you would think there would be a lot of competition given the properties of the aforementioned CDC traits. So what is all the fuss about CDC? Is it a crutch, possibly? Does a CDC mayfly on a standard dry hook shank outfish a traditional Catskill Quill Gordon on the same shank, as an example? Is a duck flank wing less effective than a blob of CDC? Or have fly tyers succumbed to forgetting the rest of their fly tying repertoire? Or worse yet, are they using CDC as a crutch for not learning basic fly tying techniques? I do not know the answers to these questions; I am simply putting the questions out there. In my honest opinion, there are no rules in fly tying, but, and this is a big butt, there are simple foundations that make your fly effective, and in my humble opinion, dropping a blob of CDC on every hook shank is not exercising your full potential. That being said, yes, I tie with CDC, but it does not limit me to what I can or cannot tie. Which leads us into the crux of the matter. Creativity doesn't end with a material; the material should not drive the creative endeavor. Go to your local fly shop and look at the vast amount of materials you can go hog wild with! Then go to the empty merchandiser for CDC or “sold out” nomenclature on your browser; I am not being a horse's ass by calling this out; it is simple observation. I know enough retailers in the industry to know they are as frustrated as I am, but they cannot necessarily be the ones writing this entry for obvious reasons. A fly tying retailer from Colorado reached out to me last month and asked my opinion on this whole topic, and I suppose it's one of the reasons I am writing about it. Although treading lightly is sometimes difficult for me because of my Italian blood, enough said. He was basically pointing out that customers are not buying other comparable materials, or at least purchasing them to experiment with, because they see so many CDC patterns on social media that CDC has become the mainstay one-size-fits-all natural fiber. I totally understand his point. So if you put yourself in the retailer's shoes, it gets even more obvious. I am not a retailer; I primarily make and sell cane rods, so I am simply an observer and curious bystander at best. I think it is, however, a sad commentary when I get so many emails every month about where to get “premium” CDC, if there is such a thing anymore.
I have a few bags of CDC dating back to 1997, and these feathers are far superior to what is out there now, plain and simple. The barbules radiate, are very robust, and are extremely plentiful. You can feel the preen oils and, most importantly, smell them. So what happened to the CDC feather?
Mass production and bird breeding are factors. Feathers are taken from “meat birds,” which are raised in industrial conditions and harvested young, a practice that is detrimental to the quality of the preen glands. Diet and animal husbandry practices all affect the natural preen gland density and oil content. Wild ducks harvested by hunters typically make for better “duck bottoms”; comparing the two is startling, to say the least. Heat-based dying processes compromise the preen oils. When demand rises, harvests may become younger and younger, but I have some skepticism about this theory. These are some of the more obvious reasons for quality issues. The availability issues for CDC are then compounded by the sheer number of social media images of CDC fly patterns that stimulate demand. Which, as we know, is the whole reason Instagram and YouTube are flourishing. Stimulate sales with emotive content. This is why the written word is so important. But I digress.
On a lighter note, CDC is not the be-all and end-all of fibers. There are less expensive options that are just as creative and effective. Low-grade hackle fiber (my personal favorite), snowshoe rabbit, soft hackle, and synthetic yarns. For winging, the old standbys: hen tips, barred duck flank, or comparadun hair, as an example. Inspired in my mid-twenties by the Dettes, I had the awesome opportunity to meet Winnie, Mary, and the author Eric Leiser at an early cane rodmakers gathering in Roscoe, New York. The Dettes jump-started my fly tying ritual for life.
