Fly of the Month
In the dog days of summer, the insect activity on the surface is limited to very tiny midges at dawn and dusk followed by a long hot day without activity except for terrestrials that somehow landed in the water and are at the mercy of the fish. Some terrestrials hop or jump in the wrong direction and land in the water. Other terrestrials are knocked off overhanging branches or blown into the water with a gust of wind. Regardless, terrestrials randomly appear floating down a stream and become food for that fish wisely and habitually waiting in place.
Caterpillars or woolly worms are present from spring to fall depending on which butterfly, moth or skipper they will transform into given the right conditions and survive the ordeal of being the prey. Fish feed on caterpillars as they randomly fall victim to the stream during all the warmer months of the year, especially during the hot summer months.
Crackleback
The Crackleback is a take-off from a popular wet-woolly, tied with a chenille body and a natural raffia pulled over the back, full length of the hook-shank. It was designed and develop in the late 1950s by Ed Story of Feathercraft in St. Louis, Missouri. He named the fly pattern after a bass plug made by Bill Walters of Jasonville, Indiana. The bass plug had a pale olive body with a crinkly-green back. Since then, many colors have been designed and tied beyond the original pale-olive such as pale-yellow, brown-spider, lime, sulphur-orange and more have all been proven as productive versions of the Crackleback. The materials used have also changed considerably over the past decades as synthetics have become readily available.
This is an easy fly to tie and is very productive. It may be fished several different ways depending on your strategy and approach to handle the current water conditions. It may be fished as a dry or just under the surface either stripped or on a swing, or even using the accelerated downstream presentation by putting a small split shot 15 inches above the fly and letting a big downstream bow get in the fly line to accelerate its drift along a streambank. It also works well by stripping it using an intermediate sinking line or leader just as well.
To fish as a dry fly as was intended for this fly pattern, dress the hackles with silicone-gel floatant and fish dead-drift as a floating terrestrial in the surface film. If the fly sinks in fast water, its simply "skipped" under the surface with the rod tip. On the next cast, it'll float again. If there was no strike near the end of the drift, jerk the fly beneath the surface and skip it across-stream with the rod tip, or strip it back with the line-control hand.
This is the method used by most fly fishers. Fish it as a dry, if you don't get a hit ... jerk the fly under and skip it along with your rod tip." To fish as a wet fly at depth, use a full sinking line or at least a sinking leader with a split-shot on the tippet 15 inches above the fly. Strip or skip the fly just off the bottom.
Variations
Joseph Aimonette, a member of the Ozark Fly Fishers Club, says that any Crackleback not tied using the original or similar materials and colors is not really a Crackleback. This look-a-like fly is really a dry woolly. Whether it is called a Crackleback or a dry woolly, a good variation of the Crackle back is tied with a green holographic body and a palmered grizzly hackle. It is tied similar to the Crackleback and fished in the same manner. Joe calls this variation the Green Ghost.
Crackleback
Fly of the Month 7.18
…. photo, steps
Tom Adams and Alen Baker
Fly of the Month 01.14
Carolina Wulff
Much of our North Carolina trout waters may be labeled as roughwater. Sure, between riffles and runs there are typically the deeper, glassy surface pools. Yet even the pools have one or more heads where water flows into the pool as a rough whitewater run and one or more short drops at the tail that can readily sink a dry fly if not quickly retrieved at the last moment. We can always fish a wet fly or nymph in the roughwater but for most of the year we still prefer to fish a dry fly for the top action.
Many years ago, fly fisherman resolved this problem by utilizing hollow animal hair rather than feathers to build a more durable dry fly. The absolute most well-known roughwater dry flies are the fly patterns made famous by Lee Wulff. There is a whole series named after this world famous angling legend.
We have all at some point tied on a Royal Wulff to seek top water action on one of our North Carolina trout streams. But what is the logic of design behind the unique red band between two collars of peacock herl. Let’s just leave it as a natural evolution emanating from another proven fly pattern, the Royal Coachman. The use of red to attract fish dates back to Roman times and a Muriel that depicts an angler fly fishing with a hook with red wool attached. Likewise, in the Southern Appalachians the use of yellow to attract fish dates back to the Cherokee Indians wrapping a Yellarhammer (feather of a flicker woodpecker) feather on a bone hook to attract fish.
So at some point in time a local angler decided to make the Royal Wulff our own, thus the Carolina Wulff evolved locally as the roughwater fly to use in the mountain trout streams of North Carolina. One simple change to the fly pattern, use yellow floss rather than red floss.
You will not find the Carolina Wulff in fly shops as it is not as well-known as the Royal Wulff, but none the less, it is highly effective as a go-to roughwater fly pattern. You may well find the fly available and sold locally in tackle shops, service stations and general stores throughout the North Carolina mountains where a local tier is making part of his living tying and selling his flies. For example, the Citco along NC 19 in-route to the Nantahala River has a display of locally tied flies that includes (before the sell out each month) the Royal Wulff as well as the Carolina Wulff and Tennessee Wulff (lime green floss band). All three of these roughwater fly patterns are effective locally. The logic behind the lime green is yet another story – katydid, green drake, etc.
A size 12 and size 14 Carolina Wulff is all you will encounter in local stores. If you use a size 16 Royal Wulff on your favorite wild stream which allows hooking the smaller Brookies, then you will either need to tie your own size 16 Carolina Wulff or take your purchased size 16 Royal Wulff, put them in the fly vise and add a thin layer of yellow floss on top on the red band already there. Not ideal, but it works in a rush. The Carolina Wulff is especially effective on the Nantahala River and most wild streams in North Carolina.
Over many generations of fly tiers and anglers, the use of hair-wing flies has blossomed. Some fly patterns are creative modifications of the Wulff series. Other hair-wing fly patterns have their own unique origin of how the fly pattern evolved to become a fly pattern that has survived and is used today.
In addition to the Wulff series, the Humpy series, Goofus Bug series and Irresistible series come to mind as the family of roughwater flies (some listed are not hair-wing but rather hair-bodied) that may be a go-to part of an anglers fly box. Here is a very comprehensive (yet incomplete) list of the hair-wing, roughwater family of fly patterns related to the Wulff series (some have been featured in past fly of the month articles; others will be covered in the future):
Wulff series: Royal Wulff, Royal Wulff Waterwisp (reversed, upside-down version), Adams Wulff, Black Wulff, Brown Wulff, Brown Wulff Waterwisp, Gray Wulff, Grizzly Wulff, Grizzly Wulff Waterwisp, Irresistible Wulff, Ginger Wulff, Blonde Wulff, White Wulff (most of the Wulff series body styles fly have been tied parachute style but not listed here since they are not considered roughwater fly patterns)
Eastern patterns: Carolina (Yellow) Wulff, Tennessee (Lime) Wulff, Lime Wulff, Murray's™ Mr. Rapidan
Chocolate Thunderhead, Gray Thunderhead, Olive Thunderhead, Corey's Calf Tail, Rattler
Catskill Wulff, Minonipi Wulff, Ausable Wulff, Ausable Wulff Waterwisp, Water Walker (unique parachute style)
Western patterns: Montana Wulff, Bumble Wulff (Western), H & L Variant (President Ike’s go-to fly), Reverend Lang, Colorado Captain, Flourescent Red Kolzer, Orange Kolzer, Yellow Kolzer
Specific suggestive patterns: Green Drake Wulff, Brown Drake Wulff, Baetis Wulff
Humpy series: Royal Humpy, Red Humpy, Adams Humpy, Olive Humpy, Green Humpy, Yellow Humpy, Black Humpy, Trude Humpy, (Natural) Humpy, Orange Double Humpy, Yellow Double Humpy
Goofus Bug series: Royal Goofus Bug, Yellow Goofus Bug, Adams Goofus Bug, Light Elk (Special) Goofus Bug, White (Special) Goofus Bug, Blonde Goofus Bug
Irresistible series: Adams Irresistible, Female Adams Irresistible, Black Irresistible, Blue Dun Irresistible, Brown Irresistible, Light Ginger Irresistible, Yellow Irresistible (Dr. John Benbow’s go-to fly), White Irresistible, Irresistible Waterwisp, Rat Face McDougal
Carolina (Yellow) Wulff
Hook : Dry Fly, 1x long, size 10, 12, 14, 16, Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : 8/0 Uni or equivalent in Black
Tail : Golden Pheasant Tippet
Body : Peacock Herl and Yellow floss
Wing : Calf Tail
Hackle : Coachman Brown rooster
Directions :
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
In the dog days of summer, the insect activity on the surface is limited to very tiny midges at dawn and dusk followed by a long hot day without activity except for terrestrials that somehow landed in the water and are at the mercy of the fish. Some terrestrials hop or jump in the wrong direction and land in the water. Other terrestrials are knocked off overhanging branches or blown into the water with a gust of wind. Regardless, terrestrials randomly appear floating down a stream and become food for that fish wisely and habitually waiting in place.
Caterpillars or woolly worms are present from spring to fall depending on which butterfly, moth or skipper they will transform into given the right conditions and survive the ordeal of being the prey. Fish feed on caterpillars as they randomly fall victim to the stream during all the warmer months of the year, especially during the hot summer months.
Crackleback
The Crackleback is a take-off from a popular wet-woolly, tied with a chenille body and a natural raffia pulled over the back, full length of the hook-shank. It was designed and develop in the late 1950s by Ed Story of Feathercraft in St. Louis, Missouri. He named the fly pattern after a bass plug made by Bill Walters of Jasonville, Indiana. The bass plug had a pale olive body with a crinkly-green back. Since then, many colors have been designed and tied beyond the original pale-olive such as pale-yellow, brown-spider, lime, sulphur-orange and more have all been proven as productive versions of the Crackleback. The materials used have also changed considerably over the past decades as synthetics have become readily available.
This is an easy fly to tie and is very productive. It may be fished several different ways depending on your strategy and approach to handle the current water conditions. It may be fished as a dry or just under the surface either stripped or on a swing, or even using the accelerated downstream presentation by putting a small split shot 15 inches above the fly and letting a big downstream bow get in the fly line to accelerate its drift along a streambank. It also works well by stripping it using an intermediate sinking line or leader just as well.
To fish as a dry fly as was intended for this fly pattern, dress the hackles with silicone-gel floatant and fish dead-drift as a floating terrestrial in the surface film. If the fly sinks in fast water, its simply "skipped" under the surface with the rod tip. On the next cast, it'll float again. If there was no strike near the end of the drift, jerk the fly beneath the surface and skip it across-stream with the rod tip, or strip it back with the line-control hand.
This is the method used by most fly fishers. Fish it as a dry, if you don't get a hit ... jerk the fly under and skip it along with your rod tip." To fish as a wet fly at depth, use a full sinking line or at least a sinking leader with a split-shot on the tippet 15 inches above the fly. Strip or skip the fly just off the bottom.
Variations
Joseph Aimonette, a member of the Ozark Fly Fishers Club, says that any Crackleback not tied using the original or similar materials and colors is not really a Crackleback. This look-a-like fly is really a dry woolly. Whether it is called a Crackleback or a dry woolly, a good variation of the Crackle back is tied with a green holographic body and a palmered grizzly hackle. It is tied similar to the Crackleback and fished in the same manner. Joe calls this variation the Green Ghost.
Crackleback
Fly of the Month 7.18
…. photo, steps
Tom Adams and Alen Baker
Fly of the Month 01.14
Carolina Wulff
Much of our North Carolina trout waters may be labeled as roughwater. Sure, between riffles and runs there are typically the deeper, glassy surface pools. Yet even the pools have one or more heads where water flows into the pool as a rough whitewater run and one or more short drops at the tail that can readily sink a dry fly if not quickly retrieved at the last moment. We can always fish a wet fly or nymph in the roughwater but for most of the year we still prefer to fish a dry fly for the top action.
Many years ago, fly fisherman resolved this problem by utilizing hollow animal hair rather than feathers to build a more durable dry fly. The absolute most well-known roughwater dry flies are the fly patterns made famous by Lee Wulff. There is a whole series named after this world famous angling legend.
We have all at some point tied on a Royal Wulff to seek top water action on one of our North Carolina trout streams. But what is the logic of design behind the unique red band between two collars of peacock herl. Let’s just leave it as a natural evolution emanating from another proven fly pattern, the Royal Coachman. The use of red to attract fish dates back to Roman times and a Muriel that depicts an angler fly fishing with a hook with red wool attached. Likewise, in the Southern Appalachians the use of yellow to attract fish dates back to the Cherokee Indians wrapping a Yellarhammer (feather of a flicker woodpecker) feather on a bone hook to attract fish.
So at some point in time a local angler decided to make the Royal Wulff our own, thus the Carolina Wulff evolved locally as the roughwater fly to use in the mountain trout streams of North Carolina. One simple change to the fly pattern, use yellow floss rather than red floss.
You will not find the Carolina Wulff in fly shops as it is not as well-known as the Royal Wulff, but none the less, it is highly effective as a go-to roughwater fly pattern. You may well find the fly available and sold locally in tackle shops, service stations and general stores throughout the North Carolina mountains where a local tier is making part of his living tying and selling his flies. For example, the Citco along NC 19 in-route to the Nantahala River has a display of locally tied flies that includes (before the sell out each month) the Royal Wulff as well as the Carolina Wulff and Tennessee Wulff (lime green floss band). All three of these roughwater fly patterns are effective locally. The logic behind the lime green is yet another story – katydid, green drake, etc.
A size 12 and size 14 Carolina Wulff is all you will encounter in local stores. If you use a size 16 Royal Wulff on your favorite wild stream which allows hooking the smaller Brookies, then you will either need to tie your own size 16 Carolina Wulff or take your purchased size 16 Royal Wulff, put them in the fly vise and add a thin layer of yellow floss on top on the red band already there. Not ideal, but it works in a rush. The Carolina Wulff is especially effective on the Nantahala River and most wild streams in North Carolina.
Over many generations of fly tiers and anglers, the use of hair-wing flies has blossomed. Some fly patterns are creative modifications of the Wulff series. Other hair-wing fly patterns have their own unique origin of how the fly pattern evolved to become a fly pattern that has survived and is used today.
In addition to the Wulff series, the Humpy series, Goofus Bug series and Irresistible series come to mind as the family of roughwater flies (some listed are not hair-wing but rather hair-bodied) that may be a go-to part of an anglers fly box. Here is a very comprehensive (yet incomplete) list of the hair-wing, roughwater family of fly patterns related to the Wulff series (some have been featured in past fly of the month articles; others will be covered in the future):
Wulff series: Royal Wulff, Royal Wulff Waterwisp (reversed, upside-down version), Adams Wulff, Black Wulff, Brown Wulff, Brown Wulff Waterwisp, Gray Wulff, Grizzly Wulff, Grizzly Wulff Waterwisp, Irresistible Wulff, Ginger Wulff, Blonde Wulff, White Wulff (most of the Wulff series body styles fly have been tied parachute style but not listed here since they are not considered roughwater fly patterns)
Eastern patterns: Carolina (Yellow) Wulff, Tennessee (Lime) Wulff, Lime Wulff, Murray's™ Mr. Rapidan
Chocolate Thunderhead, Gray Thunderhead, Olive Thunderhead, Corey's Calf Tail, Rattler
Catskill Wulff, Minonipi Wulff, Ausable Wulff, Ausable Wulff Waterwisp, Water Walker (unique parachute style)
Western patterns: Montana Wulff, Bumble Wulff (Western), H & L Variant (President Ike’s go-to fly), Reverend Lang, Colorado Captain, Flourescent Red Kolzer, Orange Kolzer, Yellow Kolzer
Specific suggestive patterns: Green Drake Wulff, Brown Drake Wulff, Baetis Wulff
Humpy series: Royal Humpy, Red Humpy, Adams Humpy, Olive Humpy, Green Humpy, Yellow Humpy, Black Humpy, Trude Humpy, (Natural) Humpy, Orange Double Humpy, Yellow Double Humpy
Goofus Bug series: Royal Goofus Bug, Yellow Goofus Bug, Adams Goofus Bug, Light Elk (Special) Goofus Bug, White (Special) Goofus Bug, Blonde Goofus Bug
Irresistible series: Adams Irresistible, Female Adams Irresistible, Black Irresistible, Blue Dun Irresistible, Brown Irresistible, Light Ginger Irresistible, Yellow Irresistible (Dr. John Benbow’s go-to fly), White Irresistible, Irresistible Waterwisp, Rat Face McDougal
Carolina (Yellow) Wulff
Hook : Dry Fly, 1x long, size 10, 12, 14, 16, Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : 8/0 Uni or equivalent in Black
Tail : Golden Pheasant Tippet
Body : Peacock Herl and Yellow floss
Wing : Calf Tail
Hackle : Coachman Brown rooster
Directions :
- Wrap thread one third back from eye, starting one to two eye lengths from eye, let bobbin hang
- Select calf tail hair and cut. Clean underfur thoroughly and stack in hair stacker. Tap several times and remove with right hand, pinching the tips between the index finger and thumb, maintain alignment. Place calf tail on top of the hook, with the length to be tied in, about the same length as the hook shank. Wrap softly at the one third back mark and release the grip with the right hand. The wraps should be very close together working toward the hook bend. This is only to position and judge the height of the wings. Once you are happy with the wings, tie in firmly and trim the hair making a diagonal cut. Now the calf tail can be secured by binding the diagonal with firm wraps. Advance the thread immediately forward of the hair and lifting the bundle of hair on the top of the shank with your left hand, pull the thread against the base of the tie in, on top of the shank and pull the thread away and toward the hook bend. When you pull the thread in a straight and parallel (to the hook shank) fashion the hair will stand straight up. Make several turns immediately in front of the hair. Take the thread and divide the upright hair clump into two fairly even sections. Use a figure eight wrap to divide and shape the wings. Once secure take the thread to behind the diagonal cut of the hair (the hair on top of the hook should be pretty well covered by thread now) and let the bobbin hang
- Select six or eight golden pheasant tippets for the tail and tie in on top of the hook shank. Length should be about the same as the hook shank.
- Select a peacock herl and tie in by the tip at the bend of the hook. Make several tight and touching wraps to make the rearmost band of herl. Secure with a couple of thread wraps and in open turns advance the herl to the wings. Secure with one thread wrap and take the thread back to the rear herl band. Let the bobbin hang. With the yellow floss on another bobbin, use the black thread to tie it in immediately in front of the rear herl and then advance the black thread to the where the forward wrap of herl will begin. If you do not have another bobbin, cut a length of floss (six or eight inches) and tie it in the same way. Once the floss is secure and the black thread out of the way, begin wrapping the floss in overlapping turns to the spot where the herl will be added. Tie in with black thread, trim excess and advance the bobbin to behind the wing.
- Wrap the second herl about three wraps, leaving enough room for the hackle and secure. Trim any excess and let the bobbin hang.
- Choose a Coachman brown rooster hackle with barbs about one and one half the width of the hook gape. Expose about a one quarter inch of stem and tie in behind the wing, trimming any excess. The hackle “shiny “ side should be facing the eye. Advance the thread to in front of the wing and let the bobbin hang. Begin wrapping the hackle in tight and touching turns. About three wraps behind the wing and three wraps in front. Leaving sufficient room for the head, tie in and trim excess. Form a head, and apply head cement.
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker