CDC feathers were first used in fly-tying in the 1920s in Switzerland with the two famous flies “Mouche de Vallorbe” and “Moustique du Jura”. In recent years the use of CDC has increased greatly, and we now use this superb material in all kinds of flies from dry flies and emergers to nymphs and streamers.
The characteristics that make CDC such great material are:
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It is a very light material
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It is a very soft material
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But it is a very tough, strong material
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It is a semi-translucent material, so that flies tied with CDC have a more life-like quality than flies tied with other, more opaque materials
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CDC is highly aerodynamic when being cast the CDC collapses but expands at the end of the cast and acts as a parachute as the fly descends to the water. It therefore makes casting easier and presentation more delicate
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CDC is highly hydrodynamic-under water every filament flickers with life in the gentlest flow or on the slowest retrieve
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When a fish takes a CDC fly into its mouth the soft CDC folds up like real fly tissues. So the fish accepts it more readily and is much slower to reject a CDC fly than a fly made of harder material
The secret of good fly-tying is using top quality material. We pride ourselves in providing the fly-tying world with the best CDC feathers available, both natural (white, beige, dark-black) and dyed. We take special care in our secret dyeing process not to damage the fine structure of the CDC feathers.
