Help with a Royal Wulff

[mayflyjunky]

I am trying my hand at this little bu*ger and can't seem to get it right. It is an absolute killer during a fall of spent gnat.

I can see I haven't bridged the gap between the calf tail wing and the deer hair tail hence the uneven body, but that can be sorted

The problem I am having is I cheated and trimmed the tips of the calf tail, would this be acceptable???

I am struggling with the amount of hackle behind and after the wing also, is there any guidelines to the amount I should be using before and after???

This really is a pleasing fly to tie and I would love to get it right.

All advice would be welcome
Thanks.

[boony]

Hi
Calf body hair is better apparantly, but i tie mine with white deer hair.
I dont trim the ends I stack them to line them all up. Tie Them half way down the shank, then fill the rest up with deer hair tail to make a smooth body. I use 4 turns of hackle behind the wing, then go between the wing and 3 turns in front of the wing.

Hope this helps and makes sense.

John

[arkle]

What size hooks are you using ? as the choice of material in relation to the hook size can make a difference.

Another option is fine grey squirrel tail hair, taken from the upper part of a small tail, preferably one that is a winter culled one for the best possible quality hair.

I think I read somewhere that Lee Wullf used to tie his series of flies in under 45 secs. per fly. I don't think they were anywhere near as neat as the commercial ones we see today are, but they certainly worked well enough for him.

[stevekale]

Use calf body hair, cleaned and stacked. Tie in at the 75% point. Trim stubs and tie over. Then add moose hock for tail. Your tail shouldn't flair like the one in your post. When you trim the stubs of the moose hock they should then sit flush with the tied down stubs of the calf body hair so that you already have a nice smooth body. Then split and post the calf body hair, tie in rib (fine copper wire) etc etc.

BTW Craven uses this fly as the 15th of 17 lessons in his book. Can't recommend it enough.

[greenock]

Heres some step by steps.

Complete Fisher Forum :: View topic - Royal Wulff
UKFlyDressing - Fanwing Royal Coachman

[stevekale]

Actually, if you look here this appears to be exactly the SBS in Craven's book:

Royal Wulff | Fly Recipe

Notice steps 5 and 6 and see how smooth the body base is.

[sonnaghan]

Davie mc phail does a tying of the royal wullf on youtube. It is very nice, though it is tied as a wet fly

[The Dibbler]

There is also a tying using peacock glister instead of peacock and bright red seals fur instead of globrite. I believe its one of Rod Tyes patterns, works really well for me. As for the calf tail, he uses fine deer hair for the posts.

Dibber

[trevlett]

Here's a sbs vid, this should clear things up.
skip to 4:30

YouTube - SexyloopsTV's Channel


Cheers
Trev

[mayflyjunky]

Thanks for the replys guys some great reading there and great vids.

I like the sound of that pattern by Rod

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:42 PM ----------

Originally Posted by arkle

What size hooks are you using ? as the choice of material in relation to the hook size can make a difference.

Another option is fine grey squirrel tail hair, taken from the upper part of a small tail, preferably one that is a winter culled one for the best possible quality hair.

I think I read somewhere that Lee Wullf used to tie his series of flies in under 45 secs. per fly. I don't think they were anywhere near as neat as the commercial ones we see today are, but they certainly worked well enough for him.

The hook I was using was a 170 size 10.

I know it was a wulff with a squirel tail that was doing the damage on Sheelin this season

---------- Post added at 06:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 PM ----------

Originally Posted by stevekale

Use calf body hair, cleaned and stacked. Tie in at the 75% point. Trim stubs and tie over. Then add moose hock for tail. Your tail shouldn't flair like the one in your post. When you trim the stubs of the moose hock they should then sit flush with the tied down stubs of the calf body hair so that you already have a nice smooth body. Then split and post the calf body hair, tie in rib (fine copper wire) etc etc.

BTW Craven uses this fly as the 15th of 17 lessons in his book. Can't recommend it enough.

What book is that Steve, it sounds like a good addition. Also where do you get your calf body hair???

---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------

Originally Posted by boony

Hi
Calf body hair is better apparantly, but i tie mine with white deer hair.
I dont trim the ends I stack them to line them all up. Tie Them half way down the shank, then fill the rest up with deer hair tail to make a smooth body. I use 4 turns of hackle behind the wing, then go between the wing and 3 turns in front of the wing.

Hope this helps and makes sense.

John

Thanks John that solves one problem