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Royal Wullf and Hair Stacker

1K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Whinging pom 
#1 ·
Only recently trying to tie Royal Wullf and its not easy. This is where I came into contact the use of a hair stacker, learning all the time.
I'm still trying to better the fly and enjoying different ways. My first attempt is humble and laughable but I need to start somewhere?
 

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#3 ·
Speaking from experience, the Royal Wulff is a real tough one to tie, especially for a learner.
Tips (just from my own experience)

Don't try tying initially on anything smaller than a 12. There is so much stuff to pack on the hook in a RW that it gets a lot tougher the smaller you go.

The original calls for calf body hair for the wing. I never had it so I never used it. White poly yarn or antron will work fine as the wing, and it is a lot easier to work with.

A good video is a great help for this fly. I learned from the Tim Flagler video



If you're learning, for handiness sake you can probably not bother the bit about posting the wings. Yes it sets them up at a lovely angle, but it is tricky to do. A good figure of 8 with the thread will keep the wings separate.

Best of luck !
 
#7 ·
I really like the Royal Wulff. It is really my main go to dry fly in a hatch of mayfly and even though it looks nothing like a mayfly it really does the job.
I also tie a green variation with a green/yellow hackle,olive green floss body and grey squirrel posts.Use either deer hair or squirrel tail for the tail. I have not been able to view the video above but I tie the fly with a full herl body which I then cover over with olive floss,leaving a few mm of herl at each end.This is then whip finished and varnished along the top.I find this to be easier then stopping and starting with the herl and floss to make the body.
I saw this in a video on line and have adopted the approach since,it may even be the video above.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I couldn’t be without them.
I always proudly tied all my flys , but then would buy wullfs from Orvis!
they were too frustrating and fiddly for me and if I lost one in a tree it’s felt like a disaster ‘!
Now I do tie them but it isn’t the easiest of flies the only thing I can say is I do them in stages in batches, finishing each stage with a half hitch . so I’ll do a dozen batch of the calf hair and tails , then do the batch of bodies . Then finish the batch of hackles. It just seems to work better for me to break it up.

What I try to do is make sure the finished fly is symmetrical and balanced or they can tend to spin in the air and make a real mess of tippet.
 
#12 ·
I love the Royal Wulff, in fact I caught my first ever dry fly trout on a Royal Wulff.

At the moment, I don't have the luxury of taking a lot of time to tie my flies: I lost my full fly box earlier on in the summer and I am living hand-to-mouth with flies at the moment, just tying three or four at a time just to keep going. This time of year, any free time I get I want to be fishing instead of tying.

At the moment, if I need a big visible dry fly for use in dry dropper, or as a sighter fly for a much smaller dry in low light, I have been tying a sort of quick Grey Wulff. Using pheasant tail for the tails, grey dubbing body, white poly yarn split wing and grizzly hackle behind and in front of the wing. It works great, very visible and trout often take it even though there is nothing like it hatching
 
#13 ·
As I have said earlier I am a huge fan of the RW at mayfly time until the fish turn their attention to the gnat but years ago when I was about 13 or 14 a friend of mine came back from holiday in the states.He brought me a small blister pack of 3 RW which must have been either #14 or #16 and the trout in the river loved them.No matter what seemed to be hatching those flies caught fish until I lost them in bankside trees. Although I have been tying for years I have not managed to tie anything smaller than a #12 that actually resembles a RW.
Should really challenge myself this winter to do so.
 
#14 ·
If the task seems too onerous when winter comes I used to buy them on 14',16's even 18's from Orvis in London. Not too stiff on the hackle, but only on barbed hooks. Pretty sure they'd be in the other branches.
I was put on to them from buying them from in Orvis in the states,
I really didn't find much use for the 18's.
 
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