The Royal Flush
Skip Morris
Edited by CARL WUEBBEN
The royal coachman dry fly stands as the flagship for all “attractor” fly patterns, flies designed not so much to imitate fish food as to satisfy flights of the imagination and the Royal Coachman is well known to any serious fly fisher and it has a record of over a hundred years of catching trout. So it was a great model for the Royal Flush nymph. Fanciful as it clearly is, the Royal Flush is arguably not entirely unnatural. The mayfly ameletus’s three nymphal tails are tipped with contrasting color along the lines of the Royal Flush’s golden pheasant tippets and the white wing case could remind trout of a whitish nymph having just shed an exoskeleton, as mayflies do numerous times throughout their underwater lives. The dark and shining herl body is a long proven approach to artificial nymph design, as is the brown hackle half-collar. Still, nothing is going to explain away that golden bead. Perhaps attractor flies work precisely because they look unlike anything a fish ever ate. No one knows for sure. But attractors do work, sometimes far better than solid imitations.
PATTERN
HOOK – Heavy wire, 1x long (standard nymph hook), humped shank is optional, sizes #16-#10
BEAD – Gold metal, 3/32 – inch for size 16 hooks 7/64 – inch for size 14, and 1/8 – inch for size 12 and 10
WEIGHT – Lead or lead – substitute wire, 0.015-inch (could go larger on bigger hooks)
THREAD – Black or red 6/0 (140 denier) or 8/0 (70 denier). Try the red sometime it kicks up the brightness factor a solid notch.
TAIL – Golden pheasant tippets.
RIB – Fine red copper wire over red flashabou.
ABDOMEN – Two or three peacock herls
WING CASE – Clear stretch flex, scud back, or medallion sheeting, 1/8 –inch wide (this clear strip is optional), over white duck primary, goose shoulder, or any white feather section.
THORAX – Same peacock herl used for the abdomen.
HACKLE – Brown hen neck, as a half-collar
HOW TO TIE
Royal Coachman Bucktail
Dave Hughes
Edited by Carl Wuebben
The golden age of streamers lasted two or three decades, ending in the 1960s. But these beautiful flies represent things that trout still eat, and they still catch trout. If you’d like to be armed to fish the full array of trout tactics, in order to take fish in all sorts of conditions, a few of these traditional dressings should be kept ready in your basic fly boxes. When you find big trout pursuing baitfish, you can coax them to these minnow like imitations and to little else. Traditional streamers also make excellent searching patterns. In early spring when the water is still high, unclear and cold, then again in fall, when the water is low and clear but cooling, trout are interested in feeding but don’t find much available in the way of natural insects. A streamer fished slow and near the bottom will entice them into a take if you place it where they can see it. Streamers are usually thought of as big flies, sizes 4 and 6; but I recommend that you tie them in sizes 8 and 10. You might be surprised at the results these smaller streamers bring.
PATTERN
HOOK – 6X long, TMC 300 sizes 6-8-10-12
THREAD – Black 3/0 (210 denier) or 6/0 (140 denier)
TAIL – Golden pheasant tippets
BODY – Peacock herl, red floss, peacock herl
HACKLE – Brown
WING – White bucktail
HOW TO TIE
Carrot Nymph
Rube Cross
Translated by CARL WUEBBEN
Rube Cross remains a legendary fly tier among catskill anglers. Living from 1896 to 1958, his flies and tying methods are still discussed and emulated. Although he was better known for his sparsely tied dry flies, like all master anglers, cross also tied and fished nymphs. The original name for the fly was the Carrot Ant Black Nymph, which was more commonly called the Carrot Nymph. Orange bodied wet flies have always been favorite patterns and the Carrot Nymph is an easy-to-tie pattern that is a good choice if you want to experiment with an orange nymph or wet fly. Leave the full hackle collar if you’d like to tie it a dry fly, or trim the hackle on the top and bottom to create a pattern with the profile of a nymph.
PATTERN
HOOK – Mustad 9671 or equivalent, size #14 to #12
THREAD – Black 6/0
TAIL – Brown hackle fibers
ABDOMEN– Carrot floss (orange) or dubbing
THORAX – Black chenille (Standard)
HACKLE – Dun hen soft hackle, clipped on the top and bottom
HOW TO TIE
Try it in different color bodies also
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE).
CLOWN SHOE CADDIS
JAY ZIMMERMAN Translated by CARL WUEBBEN
Forget your Stimulator flies just tie up a bunch of clown shoe caddis flies the D-rib abdomen is indestructible. The bright Mcfly foam post makes it noticeable from space, but not too crazy from the fish-eye-view. The way the hook drops off away from the butt of the elk hair/middle of the fly makes it a workhorse dry fly that can suspend heavy droppers. Because of Jay’s purposeful design, the Clown Shoe Caddis lends itself well to broken water and dry-dropper rigs as well as fishing from a drift boat or raft. The heavy hackle and colorful post make the fly both buoyant and visible in the roughest water, and that D-rib body is pretty darn buggy looking also.
PATTERN
HOOK – TIEMCO (TMC) #2487 in #12 - #18
THREAD – 8/0 (70 denier) Olive dun UNI-THREAD
BODY – Small clear D-rib
WING – Yearling elk, natural or dyed dun
HACKLE – Grizzly saddle
INDICATOR – Mcfly foam in your choice of bright colors
THORAX - Black Superfine dubbing
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE).
Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph
Frank Sawyer, MBE
Translated by Carl Wuebben
This is a version of the original conceived and tied by FRANK SAWYER, MBE, an English river keeper. The pheasant tail nymph is one of the oldest of modern nymphs. Frank devised the pattern for use on the chalk streams of southern England. He designed this nymph to imitate several species of the BAETIS family, generally referred to as the “olives”; it quickly became world famous. Franks pheasant tail suggests many of the skinny nymphs that flourish in various habitats, exciting riffles to alluring deep holes in rivers bed of chalk streams or spring creeks; and in Stillwater’s of all sizes
HOOK – Standard nymph, sizes #14 - #16 - #18 - #20 -#22. Try a scud hook also
THREAD – Brown- 6/0 or 8/0.
TAILS – Ring neck pheasant tail fibers.
ABDOMEN – Butts of ring neck pheasant tail fibers.
RIB – Fine copper wire.
SHELLBACK – Pearl flashabou.
LEGS – Pheasant tail fibers.
THORAX – Peacock herl.
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING ***but remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH-PICTURE-RELEASE).
The Western Coachman
BUZ BUSZEK Translated by CARL WUEBBEN
The Western Coachman is without a question a very productive fly pattern it has produced bream and black bass; five species of trout; black crappie; and even golden shiners; chain pickerel and bowfins. The Western Coachman was designed by fly shop owner BUZ BUSZEK (The gentleman the IFFF award was named for) of Visalia, California in either 1939 or 1940, originally as a local pattern for taking Sierra rainbow and brown trout in the Kings River. He patterned the Western Coachman after the wet version of the Orvis Company’s royal coachman, which was designed in 1878. The various Coachman designs, including the Royal Wulff, Royal Stimulator and others, are all ancestors of the earlier original Coachman that was designed in the 1830’s by the driver or coachman for the royal family of England.
PATTERN
HOOK – Mustad 3906, Tiemco 3769, Daiichi 1550 size #10 - #16.
THREAD – Black Danville’s 6/0 or Gudebrod 8/0
TAIL – Golden pheasant tippet
RIB– fine gold wire
BODY – Peacock herl with the fine gold wire rib
WING – White deer hair
HACKLE – Coachman brown rooster neck or hen saddle feather
HEAD – Black thread
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH - PICTURE - RELEASE).