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Were Wulff
Tied by Jim Dubisz |
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Tail: Eastern woodchuck tail or body guard hair
Dubbing: Fur and guard hairs from hare's ear mixed with chopped yellow sparkle yarn
Hackle: Mixed brown and grizzly, grade 1 or 2
Thread: Non-waxed 8/0 brown, red or primrose
Wing: White or gray calf tail or elk body hair
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| Tying Instructions |
- Select hook size 10 through 20, pinch down barb, sharpen with fine stone and place in vise.
- Rub a section of tying thread with bee's wax and tie in where the wing will be positioned, a little back from the eye of the hook and wrap thread to bend.
- At bend of hook make a couple of extra turns of thread, this will help to splay the tailing material and will add considerable support to your fly.
- Select woodchuck tail hairs and place in hair stacker to even tips. Tie in tail materials using two conventional loose loops and then tighten down and wrap forward to where the wing will be positioned.
- Select wing material, even tips in stacker and tie down in same manner as the tail. At this point do not worry about getting wing height exactly correct, this will be accomplished later. Wind thread back towards the bend a little bit and trim off excess forming a gradual taper from wing to tail. After trimming excess, continue to wrap back to the bend and then back forward to wing lifting it up at this point and wrapping close turns in front of the wing to make it stand up. Encircle the wing with two turns of thread to capture stray fibers and to further support the wing. Wrap two or three turns back behind the wing, you are now ready to tie in the hackles.
- Select one brown and one grizzly hackle with the shinny sides facing each other. Tie in with the hackles parallel to the hook shank with the butts under the shank pointing back towards the bend and wrap almost back to the tail. After tying in the wings, lacquer the body, but be careful not to over apply cement.
- Coat thread with tacky wax and begin to apply dubbing. Use only enough dubbing to cover the thread. Do not try to taper body with dubbing, taper should already be present after tying in your previous materials. Wrap dubbing in close turns first back towards the bend than forward to point where hackle are tied in. Lift hackles so thay are perpendicular to shank and continue to wrap to point in front of the wings. If you have done everything right, at this stage your body is completed, your thread is hanging a little in front of the wing and there remains some bare hook shank directly in front of the eye of the hook.
- Wrap each hackle making four close turns behind wing and one in front.
- Tie off hackles, wrap a nice head and lacquer.
- Take a look at the height of the wing. If too high in relation to the hackle length, trim to size forming a nice mayfly type wing shape.
Woodchuck or groundhog fibers make excellent tailing material because they are not super straight and rigid like elk body or deer hair. They provide better support than calf tail and they are easier to manipulate and stack. When splayed correctly they make the fly look alive like it is buzzing on the water and ready to fly off. This is because the ends of the fibers are lighter in color, like thay have been sprinkled in white paint. I like a splayed tail better than a split one. It is easier to tie and it makes the fly look more alive as mentioned above. Fran Betters, the originator of the Ausable Wulff, stated that a lunker trout should shutter every time it saw a woodchuck crawling on the stream bank because they contributed to many a large trout in his creel.
A split wing is really unnecessary and time consuming. Lee Wulff, the originator of the Wulff series, stated that the only reason he incorporated split wings in the beginning was to sell flies to the general public. Americans were so enamored with British tying traditions that they refused to use flies that did not have split wings.
Remember Gary LaFontaine's advice, a little dubbing goes a long way. If you want a more robust fly for pocket water, use more tailing and wing material, not dubbing.
For a change of pace try using elk body hair for wing material. It is easier to use than calf tail and since it is hollow it adds more buoyancy to the fly and reduces bulk in the tie down area, which is important when tying size 16 through 20.
Don't waste your time getting the wing height just perfect. Trim to size and shape accordingly. Be creative, the trout won't mind and it will save you a lot of time and added frustration at the vise. |
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