Rackelhanen

Dry fly imitating caddis, for trout, grayling and char. Beginner. Kenneth Boström, 1967.

A shaggy body of chopped poly yarn, fuller at the rear, a double poly-yarn wing folded over the back, and a dubbed front body.

Materials

Steps

  1. Attach thread Attach the thread at 90% of the way along the shank with a few turns and trim the tag end.
  2. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  3. Dub: poly yarn, cut into 1 cm pieces and dubbed Twist a thin noodle of poly yarn, cut into 1 cm pieces and dubbed onto the thread and wrap it forward to 65% of the way along the shank. Touch-dub the fluffed yarn onto waxed thread; two turns back towards the bend, then forward, so the rear is fuller.
  4. Tie in: brown poly yarn Tie in the brown poly yarn, leaving 1.45× the gape sticking out behind, angled about 15° up from the shank. Let it flare out round the sides of the body. Tied in by its middle, one half back, the other folded back over it; trimmed to end just behind the bend.
  5. Dub: poly yarn, cut into 1–2 cm pieces and dubbed Twist a thin noodle of poly yarn, cut into 1–2 cm pieces and dubbed onto the thread and wrap it forward to 92% of the way along the shank.
  6. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread. Tease out the body fibres for legs.

History

Kenneth Boström tied it in 1967 during a caddis hatch on the Vänneån in southern Sweden, where the fish took only caddis hatching just under the surface. He thought it ugly and was slow to show it to his friends. One of them named it after the rackelhane, the hybrid of a black grouse and a capercaillie, because it looked like a "bastard". Boström does not name the friend; Lars Chr. Bentsen (Ahrex), who heard the story from Boström, says it was Lennart Bergqvist, and that Boström had called it Boström's Sedge.

Fishing it

Always treat it with floatant. Boström's four ways: short, nervous strips for egg-laying caddis; without wings as a swimming pupa; pulled under and let go so it pops up like a hatching caddis; or dead drift as a spent caddis. Pulled under, it trails bubbles from the air in its wing. Kasper Mühlbach uses it for grayling in fast water, where it stays visible even in the light summer nights.

Sources