Royal Wulff Tute

Royal Wulff Tute

Hook; Mustad 7957B or 2x long hook
Thread; black 6/0
Tail; white calf tail
Wing; white calf tail
Body; peacock herl/red floss/ peacock herl
Hackle; coachman brown

I’m using a #10 hook for this tie

1. Thread base hook shank and bring thread to bend of hook. I make a few extra wraps at the eye gap to make sure it is closed.

2. Tail; Cut off a small clump of calf tail. Hold the tips together and pull out any under fur or short hairs from the butt end. Calf tail is pretty unruly so it is hard to get the ends straight but I do put it in a hair stacker to try to even them out. The length of the tail will be the same length of the hook. Tie tightly in at bend. I trim the butt ends about 1/3 up the shank at an angle. 

 

3. Bring thread to about 1/3 behind eye of hook. Measure a small clump of calf tail hair the length of the hook. 

 

 3a. Wing; Tightly secure wing with thread wraps building up thread in front of the hair to stand it up. Trim the butt ends at the point you tied in the tail overlapping just a bit.

 3b. Wind thread, securing wing butts, to bend of hook. Notice there isn’t much of a lump where the tail butts and the wing butts meet.

 

 4. At bend secure two peacock herls. Make sure you trim off the fragile tips of the herl before tying them down. Peacock herl has longer fibers on one side than the other. I match the long fibers up and tie them on the hook shank facing downward. When I wrap these around the shank they actually will spin outward.

 5. Rump; Make a few wraps for the rump of the body with the herl. This is a judgment call as to how long to make this. A little practice will help in the judgment. After making the rump lay the herl against the side of the shank and secure it up the shank with thread wraps leaving a gap behind the wing. Bring thread back, right up against the herl rump.

 

 6. Mid Section; I use three strand of red floss for this tie. Tie down as shown right up against the rump than, overlapping, wrap forward to wing. Trim at herl.

 

 7. Body Front;  Holding the herl upward, I wind the thread in front of the herl to the wing before completing the body. Wind the herl forward, leaving a small gap behind the wing, before securing it down and trimming. 

 8. Secure the hackle, behind the wing, to the side of the shank. Secure the butt of the hackle in front of the wing. 

9. Bring the thread half way between the wing and the eye of the hook. Wind the hackle behind the wing, one wrap in front of the other. Bring it under the wing and wind a couple of wraps towards the eye stopping at the thread. 

 

 10. Trim hackle, secure and make a thread head.

 

 I dap the thread head with head cement and coat the red floss with rod varnish. The rod varnish is self leveling, adds a little gloss to the floss and coats the fibers to strengthen them.

You will notice, as you tie, calf tail hair will spring up out of nowhere. You can trim them as you go along or just deal with it at the end and trim the unruly hair then.

Big flies for river fishing.

~doubletaper

 

 

 

 

#20 Midge Tute

#20 Midge Dry Fly 

 A few things you’ll need before beginning to make tying easier.
Patience, a steady hand, sharp pointed scissors and good grade rooster cape with good barb count.

Tying #20 or smaller dry midges I like to use grizzly hackle capes. Capes have stiffer hackle feathers than saddle hackle so I feel they are much better for hackling midges to keep them afloat.
I also like to use up eye hooks or straight eye hooks. With this tiny of hook the distance and gap between a down eye  and the hook point is very small. Using an up eye or straight hook I feel gives me a better chance to hook the fish with the open gap.

 Cree rooster cape

 Adam's Midge
Hook;  #20 up eye or Big eye straight eye hook.
Thread; Gray 8/0
Tail; Cree hackle fibers
Body; gray tying thread
Hackle; Cree

 1. Thread base hook shank. I start thread right behind hook eye and fill any gap between the eye bend to shaft. Hooks are mass produced and I am usually using fine tippet. I don’t want the tippet to fail due to a sharp edge.

 

 2. Peel off some hackle fibers from a Cree Cape. The back of the cape is cream in color so I spin the fibers between my fingers before tying them on to mix the colors together. Tail should be same length as hook length.
This small of fly I just wind thread around the hook shank for the body.

 3. Thorax. The thorax of May flies are bigger than the body so I dub the thorax with super fine gray dubbing.

 4. Hackle. Tie in hackle as shown onto dubbed thorax.

 

 5. Hackle. Wind hackle towards eye leaving room to tie off behind eye of hook.

 

6. Thread a head on the fly and I add head cement on the head.

 Front of fly.

 Most of the time I do not put wings on #20 dry midges. If I do decide I make a parachute type fly I use a CDC feather, reason being is the CDC doesn’t add much bulk to the fly body as poly or calf tail would. To make sure the hackle, being wound around the CDC feather stays put, I make sure that the CDC feather has a stiff stem in the middle. The trick to tying hackle around the post is to tie down the hackle right up against the post as close as possible on each side.
This one is a Dark Dun midge with parachute post on a straight eye hook.

 

 Dark Dun Grizzly Cape

Ginger and Brown Para midge.
I use yellow thread for the ginger midge and rust brown thread for the brown midge.

Brown Grizzly Cape

Ginger Grizzly Cape

Brown and Dark Dun midge.

 ~doubletaper

Hellgrammite Tute

Murray’s Hellgrammite

This is the best Hellgrammite pattern that I have found that works great for smallmouth bass in rough water and is easy to tie.

Hook; 9672 #8 or #10
Thread; black 6/0
Pincers; 2 black biots split.*Harry Murray’s original pattern calls for rubber pincers. I like the look of biots
Eyes; med. dumbbell on #8, Small dumbbell #10
Tail; 20 strands black ostrich herl
Rib/legs; stiff black saddle hackle
Body; Lrg. Black chenille on #8, Med. Black on #10

 1. Thread base hook shank and bring thread right behind eye of hook.

 2. Pincers; Split biots and secure right behind eye of hook, curved upwards.

 3. Eyes; secure dumbbell eyes to shank leaving room behind eye to make nose. Bring thread to bend of hook.

4. Tail; Secure 20 strands of ostrich herl at bend. Length should be a little longer than hook length. Trim off just behind dumbbell. Bring thread back to bend.

5. Rib/legs; Trim a few fibers off tip of hackle to catch thread when securing to shank. Tie in black hackle at bend of hook.

 

This will secure the hackle and not let it slip out.

 6. Body; Black chenille tied in at bend. Lay other end over shank, over dumbbell, and secure behind eye of hook.

7. Body; Wrap chenille forward, under dumbbell, and secure behind eye of hook. This Hellgrammite rides hook up and the chenille covers up the dumbbell center shaft. Bring thread behind dumbbell.

8. Legs; Palmer hackle over chenille and tie off behind dumbbell.

9. Nose; Whip finish behind eye of hook.

Nasty looking Hellgrammites.

They catch trout also.

 Here’s a story catching smallmouth bass in the Shenandoah river from my blog at;

 http://streamsidetales.blogspot.com/2009/11/jeremy-and-hellgrammites.html