The Royal Wulff - Fly of the Month
By Brian Schmidt

Hook:

Standard dry fly hook - typically size 12 or 10

Thread:

Black 6/0

Rib:

Fine gold or silver wire - optional

Hackle:

Coachman brown, wrapped very full

Body

Peacock herl, then red floss, then peacock herl, roughly equal lengths

Wing:

White Calf tail upright and divided (calf body hair works too but calf tail creates a fuller wing)  Many tiers have turned to synthetic material for wings

Tail:

Moose, elk, or natural coastal deer hair

Notes:

Like all flies, careful attention must be paid to proper proportioning. This is especially true with this pattern since there are so many materials to incorporate into the final result

Around 1930 Lee Wulff introduced the Gray Wulff, White Wulff and the Royal Wulff. Lee had serious reservations about the design of English dry flies for American rivers. He considered them too anemic-looking for our large streams. Moreover, the traditional English flies did not float well without constant applications of floatant. He began to use bucktail instead of feathers to create his imitations. Ray Bergman, a friend of Lee's listed the three patterns in his book, "Trout", and they became instantly popular.

This pattern is just as effective today as it was 75 years ago. For streams along the front range I like to fish sizes 12 and 14.