Wet Flies and Soft Hackles

Late 1800’s Wet Flies

On numerous occasions I have been asked at the beginning of the day whether we’re going to be fishing dry flies or wets. But what the person usually means by “wets” is nymphs. Actual wet flies are a very specific style of fly that differ in many ways from a nymph. It’s a simple mistake that is of little consequence when chatting with your fly fishing guide. But making the same mistake when fishing on your own might be the difference in catching fish or getting skunked.

Let’s say you had the good fortune to run into another angler on the stream who tells you he clobbered them swinging a yellow wet fly. This is obviously a valuable piece of information. But if you tie on a yellow nymph and swing it through the currents, you’re likely not going to have much success. It’s kind of like assembling something and the instructions indicate that all you need is a Phillips screwdriver and you try to use a Flat Head.

Fly fishing terminology can be a bit confusing and sometimes overwhelming. However, learning this terminology will not only give you a better understanding of the sport, but will also help you better communicate with other anglers. One of the greatest sources of confusion for many is the topic of sinking flies. We’re going to ultimately focus more on wet flies, but let’s get started by listing different categories of sinking flies and what differentiates them.

Streamers

This is probably the easiest category to define so we’ll start here. Any imitation you fish with a fly rod is just generically called a fly. However, streamers are flies that sink and imitate something that swims. Flies that imitate things like minnows, crayfish and leeches are all types of streamers.

Streamer

These flies often have a long profile. They are frequently weighted with tin wire wrapped around the hook shank or a bead or cone on the head. However, some streamers are tied unweighted to be fished near the surface or to allow freedom of movement when fished on a sink tip line.

While there are always exceptions, streamers are typically fished with movement. The fly is often cast beyond a target zone and pulled through that zone by actively stripping the fly line.  

Nymphs

Nymphs are usually designed to imitate the juvenile stage of an aquatic insect. However, some fly patterns get lumped into the nymph category simply because they are fished like a nymph. For instance, a Green Weenie is thought by most to imitate an inchworm that has fallen in the water, not a juvenile aquatic insect. But since it is often fished subsurface on a dead drift, it is sometimes qualified as a nymph.

Beadhead Nymph

Compared to streamers, nymphs usually have a shorter, streamline profile that often tapers from a fuller thorax down to a slenderer abdomen. Many imitations, especially mayflies and stoneflies will include a tail and legs. Nymph patterns are commonly weighted by a brass or tungsten bead at the head or tin wire wrapped around the hook shank. For a variety of reasons, some nymphs may be tied unweighted, but this is not common.

As with anything, there are plenty of exceptions, but nymphs are most often fished on a dead drift near the stream bottom. This can be accomplished by suspending the nymph under a strike indicator or at close range, without an indicator using straight line nymphing tactics.

Wet Flies and Soft Hackles

This is where things get a little cloudy. Wet flies and soft hackles are technically different but are so similar we’re going to group them together. There are a rare few who will make a really big deal about you referring to a wet fly as a soft hackle or vice versa. These are typically the same people who start many of their sentences with “actually” and who will call you out in public if you end a sentence in a preposition. You know the ones.

If you spend any time at all researching the difference in wet flies and soft hackles you’re going to find a number of passionate arguments that all seem to lead you back to the same question: Now WHAT exactly is the difference? Right or wrong, I routinely use the two terms interchangeably. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use the term wet fly for now. Later, we can split hairs about what makes a soft hackle different.   

What’s Hackle?

Let’s start by defining hackle. Hackle is a feather that is wrapped around the hook when constructing a fly. When the feather is wrapped around the hook, the individual fibers of the feather splay out. Different types of feathers and different wrapping techniques will result in different fly looks and behaviors.

Many dry fly patterns use a hackle feather from the neck of a rooster. The fibers on this feather are relatively stiff and uniform, and they don’t cling together. These features help create a buoyant fly that will float well on the water. Body feathers from many game birds like a grouse or partridge are short and soft. They cling together more and when submerged, undulate in a lively manner.

As you may have guessed, those “soft hackles” are used to construct wet flies. There is often a tail on these patterns but not always. There is a slender body constructed of floss, dubbing or a number of other materials. Sometimes there is a wing that is usually angled rearward. The soft hackle is tied in near the head, wrapped around the hook a few times and swept rearward.

Wet Fly

Classic wet fly patterns have no weight added. They were designed to imitate that ‘middle ground” in an aquatic insect’s life. Fished more upstream, the fly will ride in or just under the surface, suggesting a drowned adult or maybe a bug struggling to hatch. Or fished down and across, the fly will swing in a current allowing those soft hackle fibers to undulate in an enticing manner. In this situation, the fly most likely suggests an actively hatching insect.

The Difference in Wet Flies and Soft Hackles

Again, I tend to interchange the terms and don’t think much about it but for those keeping score, there are some who try to differentiate the two. And many of the people that argue there’s a difference, don’t even know what the difference is.

One writer said that the difference is how you retrieve them and went on to describe in confusing and excruciating detail the nuances of fly retrieval. That explanation just seemed like a lot of BS to me. Another person told me that the difference is wet flies have wings and soft hackles don’t. But there are some fly patterns classified as wingless wets. So that argument just raises more questions.

Soft Hackle

The best description I have been able to find contrasting the two is how the flies are hackled. Both styles use a soft hackle of some sort. If the fly is hackled over approximately the front quarter of the hook and it has a wing, it’s a wet fly. If it is hackled in that manner but does not have a wing, it’s a wingless wet. However, a soft hackle has no wing and a hackle sparsely wrapped just behind the eye. There is typically a “wall” of material, usually dubbing, behind the hackle that makes it stand straight up at a near 90-degree angle, rather than sweeping rearward.  

Benefits of Different Hackling Styles

In theory, the strength of the wet fly style is its profile. It has a more realistic silhouette with the wing and the hackle fibers wrapped farther back on the hook look more like legs. But the denser hackle clings to itself and the hook more, allowing less movement. The strength of the soft hackle is its movement. The lack of wing and slender body serve as merely a backdrop to the hackle. By tying the hackle sparsely and at more of a 90-degree angle, the fibers have nothing to cling to and dance freely in the water.

Much of this could be considered trivial or just semantics. I completely believe in the logic behind the two different hackling styles but don’t personally find them unique enough to warrant their own fly pattern classification. I hackle some dry flies more heavily for fast water and some more sparsely for slow water, but I don’t call one a dry fly and the other a dense hackle. They’re both just called dry flies.  

Again, I think it’s going to be the very rare (and probably annoying) person who is going to passionately differentiate between the two. Most of the industry, like me, will use the two terms interchangeably. For example, there is a common fly pattern called a Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail. It is not a Pheasant Tail with a hackle tied sparsely at a 90-degree angle behind the eye. It’s just a Pheasant Tail Nymph with a soft hackle.

Implementing Wet Flies

Unless you’re just into obscure trivia, the real takeaway from this article shouldn’t be the subtle difference between wet flies and soft hackles. The more important contrast is between wet flies and nymphs. Most people have a pretty good understanding of dead drifting a beadhead nymph under a strike indicator but implementing wet flies into your arsenal can make real differences on the stream.

For instance, Quill Gordon mayflies are one of the first good hatches of the year in the Smokies but they are notorious for getting off the water quickly, especially on sunny days. In other words, even though there’s a big hatch, fish aren’t getting a very good look at those adults and will often focus on the emergers. A Quill Gordon wet fly can be extremely productive during that hatch.  

Fishing wet flies in pocket water when there’s no hatch can also be productive. While classic techniques like the down and across swing can work, don’t get locked into one method. Play around with different things. I frequently fish soft hackles the same way I would a nymph with a straight line method, but at the end of the drift I’ll allow the fly to swing. I catch a lot of fish on the drift and a lot on the swing. Sometimes I’ll “pump” the rod a little during the drift, causing the fly to twitch.

Are wet flies the secret weapon that will instantly and magically catch you more fish? Not necessarily, but it’s one more arrow in your quiver. Wet flies were some of the earliest flies ever devised but like many things, kind of fell out of fashion over the years. They’ve lost out to everything from dry fly purists to euronymphers. But you know what? The fish still like them.

Brood X Cicada

The last time it happened, George W. Bush was not far into his second term and LeBron James was nearing the end of his rookie season. Netflix wasn’t streaming, Twitter and Instagram didn’t exist and Facebook was only available on the campus of Harvard University. The first iPhone was still three years away and I was still five months away from meeting the woman I would eventually marry.

Brood X cicadas have missed a lot in the 17 years they’ve been underground, but this is the year they come to the surface to see what’s been going on. And there will be a lot of them coming. Tens of billions of Brood X cicadas are expected to emerge across 18 states, including Tennessee. But we see cicadas every year. What’s so special about these?

There are, in fact, 13-year cicadas and even annual cicadas that can emerge in pretty significant numbers. But the 17-year cicadas emerge in mind boggling swarms, and the Brood X is supposed to be one of the biggest yet.

They typically begin to emerge when the ground temperature reaches 64-degrees. In Tennessee, that’s expected to be around Mother’s Day. Once they begin emerging, expect them to hang around for about 4-6 weeks. While they’re here, in addition to catching up on all of the latest tech and social trends, they will damage a few young trees and plants, make a hell of a lot of noise and end up in the bellies of a lot of fish!

Unfortunately, we don’t typically see many of them in the mountains… but I’m hopeful. And there doesn’t tend to be a lot of them near tailwaters. Where they are going to be of most significance to fly fishers is on warmwater lakes and rivers. I hope to get out at least a few times on the mud flats to cast to rising carp!

I spent part of the winter tying a bunch of these in preparation. I tied most of them on bass hooks but tied several trout versions, too… just in case…

Get ready. The cicadas are coming!

Brood X Cicada Fly Pattern

Rob’s Cicada (Trout Version)

  • Hook: TMC 5212 #10
  • Thread: Black 6/0
  • Eyes: Red glass beads burnt onto 15lb. red Amnesia
  • Underbody: Golden brown Ice Dub
  • Body 1: 2mm black foam, folded over to layer Body 2
  • Body 2: 2mm orange foam
  • Underwing: Pearl yellow Krystal Flash
  • Wing: Mix of orange and white antron yarn
  • Legs: Orange and black Sili Legs

Mr. Rapidan Emerger

Mr. Rapidan Emerger
Mr. Rapidan Emerger

The Mr. Rapidan fly pattern was originated by Harry Murray in the 1970’s. Originally tied as a dry fly, it was designed to be a buoyant, visible fly for the choppy waters of Virginia. Does that sound familiar? It should, because much of the trout water in Virginia is very similar to the trout water in Tennessee!

Like many other fly patterns I write about, the Mr. Rapidan has A LOT of branches on its family tree. In fact, if you visit Harry Murray’s online site, you’ll more likely find a description of the Mr. Rapidan family of flies. We’re not going to get into that this time, but you’ll find everything from dry flies to nymphs to ants in the Mr. Rapidan family.

But you’ve surely noticed that the title of this article is not Mr. Rapidan Ant or Mr. Rapidan Family. We are focused on the emerger, mainly because it is time for Quill Gordons to hatch and this is the best pattern for a Quill Gordon emerger I’ve ever used.

The Quill Gordon mayfly is one of the first good hatches of the year in the Smokies. Most folks will tell you it starts coming off around the third or fourth week of March. I wish it was that simple. As an early season hatch, it can be one of the toughest hatches of the year to time right.

Mayflies don’t time their emergence based on a calendar. It usually has more to do with water temperature. When water temperatures get into the 50’s and remain there for the better part of a few days, Quill Gordons will begin to hatch. Usually that’s late March but if we get a warm spell in February, they’ll come off then. If we get a really cold early spring, they may not come off until April. This year, all indications are that they’ll be right on schedule, but it’s still too soon to tell.

During a hatch, some mayfly species spend a fair amount of time on the surface before they fly off. Those are pretty easy picking for trout. However, unless you catch a Quill Gordon hatch on a particularly cool or damp day, they get off the water in a hurry and trout don’t get much of a look at the adults. So the trout often focus their attention more on the emerging insects.

Enter the Mr. Rapidan Emerger. While there are very specific Quill Gordon wet fly patterns, I haven’t found any that outproduce the Mr. Rapidan Emerger. I will sometimes fish it as a dropper below a Quill Gordon dry fly, but most often, I like to fish it by itself or in tandem with another wet fly. Of course, it depends on the specific run but I most often like to fish it on a tight line, “twitching” the rod tip periodically through the drift.

Some variations of this fly have a tail, usually made of pheasant tail fibers. The variation I included does not.

Mr. Rapidan Emerger

Hook: TMC 3769 #14-10
Thread: 8/0 Grey
Rib: Small copper wire
Tail (optional): Pheasant Tail
Body: Dark hare’s ear dubbing
Thorax: Cream antron dubbing
Hackle: Natural hen neck, swept rearward

The Royal Coachman

Royal Coachman
Royal Coachman

Fly lineage can be an incredibly difficult thing to trace. I’ve certainly opined more than once about this in previous articles. For some flies, there is simply little to no written history. For others, the waters get muddied by endless variations. When you change the body color or, say, the tail material of an existing pattern, have you created a new fly or is it just a variation of the original?

My friend Walter has a wonderful trout fly called a Smoky Mountain Candy. It is considered an original fly pattern but it’s really just a Thunderhead dry fly with a yellow body. When someone tied an Adams dry fly with a yellow body, they called it a yellow Adams. So, is Walter’s fly original or is it just a yellow Thunderhead?  Don’t answer yet. It gets even more complicated.

The Thunderhead dry fly is really just an Adams Wulff with a deer hair tail instead of moose hair. And of course, the Adams Wulff is a hybrid of an Adams and a Wulff. The Wulff series of flies are named for and were made popular by Lee Wulff but the most popular, the Royal Wulff, is almost identical to an earlier pattern called a Quack Coachman. The Quack Coachman was a hairwing  version of a Royal Coachman developed by L.Q. Quackenbush. And somehow, after a really long trip around the barn, I’ve made it to this month’s fly, the Royal Coachman. Its history is just as complicated, which is what started the above detour!

Many credit John Hailey with the origin of the Royal Coachman. He was a fly tyer in New York and was said to have first tied the pattern in 1878. However, it was merely one rung on an evolutionary ladder of variations that we’re still climbing today. As most would agree, by adding some red floss in the middle and wood duck feathers for a tail, he simply created a flashier version of an old British pattern called a Coachman.

The Original Original

Tom Bosworth created that original pattern, a wet fly, in the 1830’s. It had a number of variations from different tyers, most notably the Leadwing Coachman, before John Hailey ultimately shaped it into the more familiar version seen today. Actually, the most widely accepted version of the fly today includes golden pheasant for the tail and white mallard quill for the wings, both of which, I believe, vary from Hailey’s original.

And over the years, variations of variations have emerged. In addition to the Wulff and Trude variations, there are assortments of dry flies, wet flies and streamers in the “royal family.” Different colored floss bands branch the tree even more, accounting for Tennessee versions, North Carolina versions and others.

Most people don’t care about all of this. They just want a fly that catches fish. It certainly does that, even after all of these years. After all, a fly pattern doesn’t hang around for hundreds of years and get tweaked by every tyer that touches it if it doesn’t catch fish!

Even the version I’ve included here has my own bastardized twist! I most often substitute the quill wing with a synthetic called Z-lon. I find it more durable and simpler to tie. Tying in upright, divided wings is already time consuming. Doing it with quill wings requires an entirely different degree of fuss. Does that make it the Royal Fightmaster?

The Royal Fightmaster… err… Coachman

  • Hook: TMC 100 #18-10
  • Thread: 8/0 Black
  • Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippets
  • Wing: White Z-lon
  • Body: Peacock Herl
  • Band: Red Floss
  • Hackle: Brown Rooster Neck   

Rob’s Steroid Sally

Rob's Steroid Sally
Steroid Sally Top

Little Yellow Sally stoneflies are one of the most prolific hatches in the Smoky Mountains. Most years, we begin seeing the first ones around mid April and they tend to hang around until sometime in July. They’re small, dainty and bright, usually a bright yellow to sometimes chartreuse color.

For years I tied and fished very exact imitations of these bugs, and I still do on more heavily fished rivers where fish seem to be a little pickier.  But those smaller, more delicate versions are harder to see on the water and they have a tendency to sink in faster currents. Both of those features can spell trouble, or at least frustration, when guiding a beginner angler.

Yellow Sally
Little Yellow Sally

As a fisherman and especially as a guide, I like simplicity and versatility. The more variables I can remove from a situation (like a sinking dry fly), the better I can put clients in a position for success. Additionally, in many of the backcountry streams in the Smokies, the fish are not overly particular on fly patterns. Not spooking them and getting a good drift will usually produce strikes more than fly pattern. But if you can have a fly that is at least in the same ballpark of color, profile and/or size as the naturals, you’ll stack the deck even more in your favor.

So a few years ago, I began creating a fly that would be highly visible, extremely buoyant, durable and at least vaguely suggesting a Yellow Sally. I ended up with a beefy foam bug about two sizes bigger than a typical Yellow Sally – hence the name “Steroid Sally.” And if I’m being totally honest, I designed it more as something to support a dropper nymph than a dry fly to cast to rising trout. It would basically be an edible strike indicator.  But you guessed it… the trout loved it.

Rob's Steroid Sally
Steroid Sally Profile

Though no dry fly is totally unsinkable, this one is probably the closest I’ve found, at least in the smaller, trout fly category. It has become a go-to dry fly for me from late spring through early fall. And while yellow is still my favorite color, variations in orange, tan and lime green have also been very productive.

It has quickly become the most frequently requested fly for the custom tying orders I do in the winter.  Give me a shout if you want some or check out the recipe below if you want to tie some for yourself.

Rob’s Steroid Sally

  • Hook: 3XL Dry Fly #12
  • Thread: 8/0 Yellow
  • Lower Body & Head: 2mm yellow foam
  • Top Body: 2mm lime green foam
  • Wing: Yellow floating poly-yarn
  • Legs: Small round rubber, yellow

The Wonderful World of Worms

The thought of fishing with a worm pattern makes many fly fishing purists cringe. I have to admit, I sometimes feel a little dirty about it but I’m not sure why. I think it’s kind of like the disdain some fly fishers have for strike indicators, probably due to their similarity to bobbers. Bobbers and worms are the tools of bait fishermen and fly fishers don’t like the thought of doing ANYTHING akin to bait fishing!

The thing is, fish eat worms – even the sophisticated trout. When we choose most fly patterns, we are doing so because they resemble something we think the fish is eating. Therefore, why should fly patterns that imitate worms be any different? Maybe it’s just because the patterns for worms just don’t have the same elegance and beauty as say, a traditional wet fly pattern.

Maybe it would help to verbally justify it when you tie on a worm pattern. That’s what I do. In much the same way I acknowledge eating that piece of pie as a bad decision right before I eat the piece of pie, I always declare that I’m going to fish junk before I put on a worm. There’s just something about that self-awareness that allows us to forgive ourselves and sleep at night. And when it comes to fishing the worm, it doesn’t hurt that they flat out catch fish!

San Juan Worm

Just like any fly pattern, a worm imitation isn’t magic. You’re not going to instantly catch a bunch of fish because you’re using a worm. You still have to do all of the other things right like approach and presentation. And sometimes, even when everything is done correctly, the fish may just not be feeding and/or they may not be feeding on worms.

Fish that live in streams with rock bottoms and banks are simply not going to see as many worms as fish in streams with silt bottoms because it’s not their habitat. In the mountains, I have the best success with worms after a good rain. But that’s probably true about anywhere. We’ve all seen an abundance of worms on our sidewalk or driveway after a good rain because they are flooded out of their “holes.” The same thing happens on a stream bank and many of those worms end up in the stream where fish are looking for them.

Under normal conditions, I don’t have as much success with worm patterns, at least with wild trout, or even holdover stocked trout. But freshly stocked trout will often eat a worm pattern with reckless abandon simply because it’s colorful. Fresh stockers tend to be suckers for anything bright or shiny. However, with wild trout, even when they don’t eat the worm, I think it gets their attention.

I will routinely fish a pink or red worm as the top fly of a double nymph rig and for the bottom fly, I’ll use a more subtle, maybe smaller pattern like a Pheasant Tail. Over the years, it’s happened way too many times to be coincidence.  I’ll fish a fly like a Pheasant Tail by itself or in tandem with another nymph with no success. When I re-rig and use that same Pheasant Tail below a worm, it suddenly begins catching fish! I don’t think that’s necessarily unique to worm patterns, though. I’ve had similar results using various bigger, brighter flies above smaller, subtler ones.

Squirmy Worm

There are a lot of different worm patterns out there, but there’s only so much artistic interpretation a fly tyer can have when it comes to worms! The San Juan Worm has long been the gold standard, but more recently, the Squirmy Worm has won favor with many anglers. They are essentially the same pattern but with different body materials. The traditional San Juan Worm has a body made of vernille or micro-chenille, which has less movement but is more durable. The Squirmy Worm uses a stretchy, silicone material, which offers a lot of movement but can come apart after several fish. Pick your poison.

In any case, there are a number of different colors available. Pink and red are the two best colors for me. However, colors like purple, orange and brown have all had their moments.

Green Weenie

And it has certainly been well documented that a Green Weenie is a killer fly in the Smokies. While it fits a little more loosely in the worm category, it still very much fits. Most commonly thought of as an inchworm imitation, it has a smaller, more robust profile than most worms and is most productive in a chartreuse color.

Rob’s PT Tellico

Rob’s PT Tellico

This is one of those flies I usually keep to myself but you caught me in a moment of weakness this month. There’s nothing too special about it. However, it catches fish almost anytime of the year, it’s durable and it’s simple to tie. I suppose those traits make it special, at least to me. Guides go through a lot of flies and consequently, want something that consistently produces and can be mass-produced in a short amount of time.

Like most of my original fly patterns, this one is a variation of another pattern. Actually, this variation is a hybrid of two well-known fly patterns. The “PT” in its name stands for “Pheasant Tail.” So, it’s essentially a combination of a Tellico Nymph and a Pheasant Tail Nymph, stripped down to its bare, fish catching essentials. I tie it sparse so that it sinks quickly. Also, I use a micro jig hook to ride hook up, and reduce bottom snags.

I suppose it could imitate a number of different nymphs but I had the smaller stonefly nymphs in mind when I designed it. These Southern Appalachian streams are full of small and large stonefly nymphs but it seems that most stonefly patterns are designed to imitate the big ones. With the Little Yellow Sally stonefly hatch being one of the most prolific of the year, I was always surprised that there were so few patterns available to imitate the nymphs.

The yellow body combined with the pheasant tail accents seemed the perfect color combination, and it has just enough added flash to suggest movement. It works great as a dropper off a buoyant dry fly, yet, is equally effective drifted under a strike indicator or straight lined with what the kids today call Euro-nymphing. Whip a few up for yourself or feel free to contact me for a custom order.

Rob’s PT Tellico Nymph

  • Hook: Orvis 1P2A (or equivalent) #18 – 14
  • Bead: Black slotted tungsten, sized to match hook
  • Bead Stabilizer: 8 turns of .010 non-toxic fly wire
  • Thread: 8/0 brown
  • Tail and Rib: 4-6 pheasant tail fibers
  • Counter Rib: Small yellow copper wire
  • Body: Yellow floss
  • Thorax: Pheasant Tail Ice Dub

Elk Wing Caddis

Elk Wing Caddis
Elk Wing Caddis

Caddis flies have just never been given the same attention as mayflies by fly fishermen. Pick any mayfly out there and it’s not difficult to find its Latin name and a separate common name. Likely, you’ll also find multiple fly patterns imitating every possible stage of just that one particular species.

That’s not the case with caddis. They are often just described by their size and color: green caddis, yellow caddis, dun caddis, etc. Sure there are different patterns out there like the Neversink Caddis and the Henryville Special, but they are just different variations of generic patterns, intended to represent a host of different caddis by varying the size and color. I don’t know exactly why that is, but I suppose in a sport where we often overcomplicate things, a little simplicity is refreshing. But don’t confuse simplicity with lack of importance as caddis flies can be found on most every trout stream in the United States.

The most popular and widely used fly pattern for a caddis adult is the Elk Wing Caddis, also called the Elk Hair Caddis. It was created by Pennsylvania fly fishing legend, Al Troth, in 1957. At least that seems to be when it was first written about. I’m sure he was fishing it before then. Since that time, it has become a staple in most every fly angler’s box not only as a caddis imitation, but also as an effective searching pattern when no hatch is present. It’s a great fly in the Smokies almost all year.

Seasonal Variations

In the early spring, I use smaller versions, usually with darker bodies to represent the darker caddis and stoneflies we see that time of year. As we get into late spring and early summer, the patterns get a little bigger and lighter, with tan bodies mostly. From late spring through early fall, a yellow body makes a great imitation for the prolific Little Yellow Sally stonefly. And by fall, I’m back to using tan, olive and even rust colored bodies.

The Elk Wing Caddis is a fairly simple dry fly to tie and again, allows for a lot of variation. By changing the color of the body, the hackle and/or the wing, you can imitate most any down-wing fly on the water. Below is a recipe for the Elk Wing Caddis I fish most often.

Elk Wing Caddis – Tan

Hook: Standard dry fly, size 16-12*
Thread: Brown 8/0
Hackle: Brown rooster, palmered
Body: Superfine dubbing, tan
Wing: Natural elk hair

* This is the common size range in which I tie this tan caddis. General hook size for caddis imitations can range from size 10 down to size 20 (and smaller).

Gold Ribbed Hares Ear

Gold Ribbed Hares Ear
Gold Ribbed Hares Ear

The Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, commonly just referred to as a Hare’s Ear, is one of the oldest nymph patterns known. However, the history on the fly is shaky at best. If I’m being honest, the history of this fly is so vague and cumbersome that I just got tired of looking! But there are numerous references in many of the old English fishing journals to a similar fly that, at the time, was more of a wet fly. The more current nymph version of the fly appears to have been around since at least the 1880’s. There are two unrelated tyers, James Ogden and Frederick Halford, who both frequently receive credit for its origin.

When I write my comprehensive history on American trout flies, I’ll dig a little deeper. But for purposes of this newsletter article, let’s just say that it has been catching trout for a LONG time!

The Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear gets its name from the materials that are used to tie it. It seems they weren’t quite as creative with fly names back in the day. Should we call it the Sex Dungeon?!?! No. It’s tied with materials from a hare’s mask and a piece of gold tinsel for a rib. Let’s call it a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear.

What the fly lacks in name creativity, it more than makes up for in productivity. It is easily one of the most popular and effective nymph patterns of all time. Most agree that it is intended to imitate a mayfly nymph, but it is also an excellent representation of a caddis nymph and many crustaceans. And while the original natural rabbit color is still quite productive, there are countless color variations. Personally, in addition to the natural color, I love a black Hare’s Ear in the winter and an olive in the early spring to imitate Quill Gordon nymphs.

in addition to color variations, there are countless other variations. Many will have some kind of sparkle rib or sparkly back. Some might have a wingcase made of peacock herl. Of course, there are beadhead versions and micro jig versions. Like many great flies, its versatility is a big part of its effectiveness.

If you’ve been trout fishing for a while, you undoubtedly already know this fly. If you’re new to trout fishing, you need to know it. Since this is originally appearing in a winter newsletter, included one of my favorite winter variations of a Hare’s Ear below.

black beadhead flashback hares ear
Beadhead Flashback Hares Ear – Black

Hook: #18 – 12 2x long nymph hook
Thread: 8/0 Black
Bead: Gold tungsten to match hook size
Rib: Gold wire
Tail: Guard hairs from hares mask. Dyed black.
Wing Case: Pearlescent Flashabou
Abdomen: Black hares ear dubbing
Thorax: Black hares ear dubbing (picked out)

Royal Wulff

Royal Wulff
Royal Wulff

Truly a dry fly for all seasons, the Royal Wulff is one of the most popular and productive dry flies ever devised. It is a perfect example of an attractor pattern with its bright red band in the middle of the body. But for me, the fly’s two greatest attributes are its buoyancy and visibility. Those are two key characteristics for a Smoky Mountain dry fly. However, while its effectiveness is rarely in question, its origin is.

The pattern dates back to the late 20’s and has long been, for obvious reasons, attributed to well known fly fisherman, Lee Wulff. However, Wulff and fellow New York fly fisherman, L.Q. Quackenbush were independently working on hair wing substitutions for dry flies around the same time. Wulff concocted a number of hair-wing patterns in a variety of colors, referred to as “Wulffs.” Quackenbush had more specifically been working with fly tyer Reuben Cross to modify the popular Royal Coachman dry fly. 

Royal Coachman
Royal Coachman

Many believe that Quackenbush is actually the originator and what we now call a Royal Wulff is actually the Quack Royal. Personally, I like the name Royal Wulff better, but how nice does the Royal Quackenberry sound? Or maybe the Royal Quack? In any case, between Wulff’s extensive work with hair-wing flies and his ultimate celebrity status, history, as it often does, got a little altered. Here’s a little more detailed account from Trout by Ernest Schwiebert, 1978:

“Hair-wing flies had their beginnings on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake before the First World War, when Benjamin Winchell and Carter Harrison first concocted them in honor of Alfred Trude, their host at a large ranch in Idaho. The first hair wings subsequently traveled with one of the party, Colonel Lewis Thompson, to the salmon rivers of the Maritime Provinces. These primitive flies were dressed down-wing over the body, and it was not until shortly before the Depression years that hair-wing dry flies evolved. Ralph Corey lived on the Muskegon in Lower Michigan, and his Corey Calftails were down-wing dries that became widely popular after the First World War. Wings tied upright and divided of hair appeared almost simultaneously on the Beaverkill and the Ausable of New York in about 1929.

“The hair-wing Royal Coachman dry fly was the creation of L.Q. Quackenbush, one of the early stalwarts of the Beaverkill Trout Club above Lew Beach. Quackenbush liked the fan-wing Royal Coachman, except that it was fragile and floated badly, and in 1929 he suggested to Reuben Cross that white hair wings might work better. Cross tied some using upright wings of calftail and tail fibers of natural brown buck. It worked perfectly, and Catskill fishermen soon labeled it the Quack Coachman in honor of its peripatetic inventor.

“Lee Wulff also worked out his famous Gray Wulff and White patterns in the Adirondacks in 1929, in a successful effort to find imitations of the big Isonychia duns and Ephemera spinners that would float well on the tumbling Ausable at Wilmington. These Wulffs have proven themselves superb flies, from Maine to California and British Columbia, and spawned a large family of patterns using different bodies and hackles. Wulffs have so completely dominated the upright hair wings that L.Q. Quackenbush and his hair-wing Coachman are almost forgotten, and his innovation is now commonly called the Royal Wulff.”

Carolina Wulff
Carolina Wulff

In more recent decades, there have been a number of other variations on this pattern. Locally, there’s a Tennessee Wulff that has a lime green band in the middle rather than red. Furthermore, there’s a Carolina Wulff that has a yellow band as an alternative to the original red. Anyone who spends much time fishing the Smokies knows that lime green and yellow are both very effective colors for flies. So, it’s no wonder these variations emerged from local tyers.

On a side note, back in 1998 I devised a version of the Royal Wulff that had a yellow floss band instead of red. I wasn’t aware of a Carolina Wulff at the time and thought I was really doing something clever and original! But it just goes to show how easily the origins of these fly patterns can get confused. I’ve tied countless original fly patterns over the years that I never even named, much less published. So, who is to say that someone else won’t tie one of those patterns 10 years from now? They might publish it, and end up with an iconic fly that was actually originated by me?!?

Royal Wulff Fly Pattern

  • Hook: TMC 100 (or equivalent) #18 – 10
  • Thread: Black 8/0
  • Tail: Moose body hair
  • Wing: Calf body hair
  • Body: Peacock herl
  • Band: Red floss
  • Hackle: Brown rooster neck