Royal Wulff

Dry fly, an attractor, for trout and salmon. Intermediate. Lee Wulff, 1930.

A moose hair tail, a body of peacock herl with a red floss band, divided white calf-hair wings and a heavy brown hackle.

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 75% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  3. Tie in: calf tail Tie in a bunch of calf tail upright, 1.9× the gape tall, with turns in front to stand it up. Divide them into a V with figure-of-eight turns. Stacked, tied in tips forward, stood up and divided with figure-of-eight turns.
  4. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  5. Tie in: moose body hair Tie in a bunch of moose body hair so the tips reach well past the bend (one and a half times the gape from the tie-in point).
  6. Tie in: peacock herl Tie in 3 strands of peacock herl with a few firm thread turns.
  7. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 25% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  8. Wind: peacock herl Wind the peacock herl forward to 25% of the way along the shank in 4 turns. The rear third of the body.
  9. Tie off: peacock herl Tie off the peacock herl with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  10. Tie in: red silk floss Tie in the red silk floss with a few firm thread turns.
  11. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 48% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  12. Wind: red silk floss Wind the red silk floss forward to 48% of the way along the shank in 6 turns. A smooth red middle band.
  13. Tie off: red silk floss Tie off the red silk floss with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  14. Tie in: peacock herl Tie in 3 strands of peacock herl with a few firm thread turns.
  15. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 70% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  16. Wind: peacock herl Wind the peacock herl forward to 70% of the way along the shank in 4 turns. Up to just behind the wings.
  17. Tie off: peacock herl Tie off the peacock herl with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  18. Tie in: coachman brown cock hackle Tie in the coachman brown cock hackle with a few firm thread turns.
  19. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 92% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  20. Wind: coachman brown cock hackle Wind the coachman brown cock hackle forward to 90% of the way along the shank in 7 turns. Three or four turns behind the wings and three or four in front.
  21. Tie off: coachman brown cock hackle Tie off the coachman brown cock hackle with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  22. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread.

History

Lee Wulff tied his first three hair-winged dries in 1929–30, because the slim Catskill flies of the day would not stay up on fast water. Rusty Dunn places this on New York's Ausable; Wikipedia's article on the Wulff series has him fishing the Esopus and other Catskill rivers. One of the three, the Bucktail Coachman, became the Royal Wulff when Dan Bailey suggested new names for them, and from 1938 Bailey promoted the series to western anglers from his shop in Livingston, Montana.

At about the same time Quackenbush, a member of the Beaverkill Trout Club, arrived at a nearly identical hair-winged Royal Coachman, which Rube Cross tied commercially as the "Quack Coachman". The two seem to have been independent. Many writers credit Wulff alone, but Quackenbush is often named as the creator, and Wikipedia lists them both.

Fishing it

A high-floating attractor for fast, broken water. It imitates nothing in particular, so try it when no hatch dominates, or when trout ignore everything else. Fish it on a dead drift. Wulff flies are fished for Atlantic salmon as well as trout.

Sources