Rattler
Fly of the Month 3.14
Rattler
The Rattler dry fly is a roughwater fly featured in Roger Lowe’s Fly Pattern Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains. Roger’s caption “The fly is designed to bring trout up in fast water; is easily seen because of the calf hair wing.” This fly pattern has similar features to the Adams Variant we recently presented yet it has a unique and very different capability as both an attractor and as a high-floating, suggestive fly pattern.
This is not a fly that we have ever found in a fly shop or in catalogs at least in recent times.
Rattler
The tail is Golden Pheasant tippets rather than hackle fibers which is a pronounced Southern Appalachian characteristic. If you look at a good number of the other Southern Appalachian dry fly recipes you will find that constructing the tail from Golden Pheasant tippets is a very common characteristic.
Note that beyond the classic use of the Golden Pheasant tippet as for a tail on a good number of Southern Appalachian fly patterns, palmering hackle is also typically used to create a high floating body.
Much like the Adams Variant, the mix of brown and grizzly hackle is widely used for the mimic of the colors of many insects.
The origin of the Rattler has been lost in time. No one knows for sure of its originator or how the design came about. The understanding that many local guides and anglers have is that the Rattler was created based on a large floating fly used on the Ausable in Michigan to imitate the Hex spinner fall in the late evening. The design is not a spinner yet the fly pattern may be fished into the darkness of the late evening where legal to do to.
Another story about the name Rattler is that an angler using the Rattler must be cocked and ready to set the hook like a rattle snake or “rattler” ready to strike.
Fish the rattler in the roughest waters on the stream. It was intended and designed to survive the heaviest dunking possible. The white calf wings make the fly patter highly visible. Both the palmering and the hair-winged construction provide a great deal of buoyancy and yet a high quality of imitativeness of a pronounced aquatic insect struggle on the surface.
The Rattler is fished much like a Wulff pattern. The palmered grizzly hackle adds huge amounts of float capabilities that hold up well in roughwater. The Rattler is a “go to fly” on wild waters where the cascades and falls contain rising rainbow or brown trout.
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
Rattler
The Rattler dry fly is a roughwater fly featured in Roger Lowe’s Fly Pattern Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains. Roger’s caption “The fly is designed to bring trout up in fast water; is easily seen because of the calf hair wing.” This fly pattern has similar features to the Adams Variant we recently presented yet it has a unique and very different capability as both an attractor and as a high-floating, suggestive fly pattern.
This is not a fly that we have ever found in a fly shop or in catalogs at least in recent times.
Rattler
The tail is Golden Pheasant tippets rather than hackle fibers which is a pronounced Southern Appalachian characteristic. If you look at a good number of the other Southern Appalachian dry fly recipes you will find that constructing the tail from Golden Pheasant tippets is a very common characteristic.
Note that beyond the classic use of the Golden Pheasant tippet as for a tail on a good number of Southern Appalachian fly patterns, palmering hackle is also typically used to create a high floating body.
Much like the Adams Variant, the mix of brown and grizzly hackle is widely used for the mimic of the colors of many insects.
The origin of the Rattler has been lost in time. No one knows for sure of its originator or how the design came about. The understanding that many local guides and anglers have is that the Rattler was created based on a large floating fly used on the Ausable in Michigan to imitate the Hex spinner fall in the late evening. The design is not a spinner yet the fly pattern may be fished into the darkness of the late evening where legal to do to.
Another story about the name Rattler is that an angler using the Rattler must be cocked and ready to set the hook like a rattle snake or “rattler” ready to strike.
Fish the rattler in the roughest waters on the stream. It was intended and designed to survive the heaviest dunking possible. The white calf wings make the fly patter highly visible. Both the palmering and the hair-winged construction provide a great deal of buoyancy and yet a high quality of imitativeness of a pronounced aquatic insect struggle on the surface.
The Rattler is fished much like a Wulff pattern. The palmered grizzly hackle adds huge amounts of float capabilities that hold up well in roughwater. The Rattler is a “go to fly” on wild waters where the cascades and falls contain rising rainbow or brown trout.
- Tom Adams, Alen Baker
Rattler
HOOK : Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : 70 denier 6/0 Danville or equivalent in black
Tail : Golden peacock crest feather
Body : Black thread
Wing : White Calf Tail
Hackle : Brown and Grizzly rooster
Directions :
HOOK : Tiemco 100 or equivalent
Thread : 70 denier 6/0 Danville or equivalent in black
Tail : Golden peacock crest feather
Body : Black thread
Wing : White Calf Tail
Hackle : Brown and Grizzly rooster
Directions :
- Debarb the hook and mount in the vise. Begin the thread two eyelengths from the eye and wrap to the hook bend in tight, touching turns. Let the 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. Trim away any waster and advance the thread to the hook bend.
- Continue to the stubs of the calf tail wing and cover with touching turns and return the thread to the hook bend. Let the bobbin hang,
- Choose a Coachman brown rooster hackle and a matching Grizzly 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. Tie in both hackles at the hook bend. Advance the thread to in front of the wing and let the bobbin hang.
- Begin wrapping the hackle one color at a time allowing a small space with the first color for the second color avoiding bunching. About three wraps behind the wing and three wraps in front. Leaving sufficient room for the head, tie in and trim excess. Whip finish three or four turns to complete and trim away the thread.