Hareline Caddis Wing Cutter

What it is

The Hareline Caddis Wing Cutter is a caddis wing cutting tool with double-edged steel blades set into a hardwood handle. It’s sharp and durable, and the handle gives you an ergonomic grip so you can press and roll it through sheet materials cleanly at the bench.

What to tie with it

Use it to cut consistent, repeatable caddis-style wings for dry flies and emergers, especially when you’re working with thin foam sheets or other sheet materials. It’s also handy for trimming foam parts for terrestrials and even some stonefly nymph wing pads when you want matched shapes without freehand cutting. It’s not intended for fibrous wing sheets like WebWing-style materials.

Flies and the fish they're for

This style of cutter gets used when tying patterns like the Henryville Special, a caddis imitation that’s fished on trout water for brook trout and brown trout in small streams and rivers. It also shows up in builds like the LA-Hopper/Ant where the same clean foam cutting helps you turn out consistent terrestrial shapes for trout, especially during summer hopper and ant falls. In caddis patterns that mix a cut “tape” style wing with CDC legs, the cutter helps you produce uniform wing silhouettes for trout feeding on adult caddis on rivers and spring creeks.