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Royal Wulff
A dry fly, tied #10–16, carried year round. It imitates nothing in particular, which is the point: it is what goes on when no hatch matches the water temperature.
A high-floating hair-wing attractor tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 10–16 with black 8/0 thread. The tail is moose or elk hair, the body runs peacock herl, a red floss band, then peacock herl again, the wings are white calf tail set upright and divided, and the coachman brown hackle is wound heavy. It imitates nothing — there is no natural behind it, and it belongs in the box as a searching pattern for water showing no hatch at all. The design is built for rough going: fast pocket water and broken riffles, where the stiff hackle and hair wing keep it riding, and the white calf wings stay legible at thirty feet when a drab fly would vanish in the glare. Carried all season, tied for trout, and reliable in the kind of currents that drown lesser dries.
- #10–16Hook size
- dry flyType
- AllSeason
- —Hatches matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
It is also tagged for no hatch at all — a searching pattern.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 10–16 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 8/0 |
| Tail | Moose or elk hair |
| Body | Peacock herl, red floss band, peacock herl |
| Wings | White calf tail, upright and divided |
| Hackle | Coachman brown, heavy |
When to fish it
An attractor, not an imitation. Fast pocket water, rough riffles, and any time you need to see the fly at thirty feet.
Carried all year.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded — which, for a searching pattern, is all of them. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Adams (Catskill) dry fly · #12–20 — The original. Rides higher than the parachute in broken water.
- Chubby Chernobyl dry fly · #8–14 — Foam attractor and indicator in one. Hopper-dropper season starts here.
- Elk Hair Caddis dry fly · #12–20 — Floats forever, skates on command, works when nothing is hatching.
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Universal mayfly dun imitation. Every angler carries these.
- Purple Haze dry fly · #12–18 — A Parachute Adams in purple. Fish it when the honest match keeps getting refused.