Wulff vs. Catskill

[sparcegrayinghair 0]

Though I've been tying a few years I have to admit I tie mainly parachutes. I know most people find them harder but for some reason the traditional is much harder for me.

And I'll post this elsewhere in hopes that it will be answered.

I'm self taught, so I may not be tying the right to start.

Anyway here's a couple of questions.

One, and the one that really gets me. The Wulff is ( to me) much more heavilly hackled. How many wraps do you use on both Catskill and Wulff? Say on a size 14 fly. I'm in the East and don't tie many 12's and most are 16's.

Two. Though my hackle gauge says I'm using a size whatever hackle, the Catskills always apear to be samer than those tied by REAL Catskill tyers. Are they like Parachutes and tied a size larger?

These may seem like silly questions but I'd like to be able to do a good job of tying a few tradional.

Thanks

[arkle 0]

Hi, as a "rule of thumb" para hackles are usually dressed one or two sizes larger than one would normally use for a standard dry fly i.e. a #14 would use a 10 or 12 hackle.

 

I'm in the throe's of dressing some para Grey Wullf's for a friend of mine, now he has asked me to add spent wings as well, in 40+years of tying all sorts of freshwater flies both commercially & for normal use this pattern is perhaps one of the most challenging I've ever done. Material choice for the wing, is perhaps the biggest bug-bear & after trying all sorts of hair etc the best option so far; is cut/burnt silver mallard breast feathers. As they are less likely to collapse when wet. They tie in reasonably well & securely esp. when the quills are reverse & double tied & they don't bulk up to much.

[Old Hat 0]

SGH- I am no expert on the Wulff or Catskill but I will chime in with what I know, maybe someone will add to it.

 

I don't think that the Wulff or Catskill flies differ greatly in hackle and density will be determined mostly by the hackle quality not by a certain number of wraps. When hackling these flies I learned to use fine quality dry fly hackle. The hackle extends from mid shank to just back of the hook eye. I learned to tie in a prepped hackle in front of the wing, stand it upright at a 90 degree angle then wrap it back to mid shank then forward to the tie off in front of the wings filling any gaps. With fine hackle this will give you a durable full hackle covering the front half of the fly hook.

 

Now sizing the hackle is about proportions of the fly and is a crucial part of these patterns and more dependent on the hook model than hook size. Different model hooks have different characteristics even though they are all the same size. I have never been one to measure hackles with a guage for this reason. Material proportions need to complement the proportions of hook and style of fly. the classic hook for Catskills is the Mustad 94840 or the R50 in today's Mustads. Generally, your looking for the fly to sit on water with only the hackle tips and tail tips touching with the hook just above the surface. This can be achieved on most hooks by following these proportions...wings the length of the hook from the front of the eye to the rear of the bend (entire hook length), the tail length should be measured in the same manner and tied in just above the hook barb or end of the hook shank. This will set you up for measuring the hackle size. As I said you will want the fly to ride on the hackle tips and tail tips with the hook out of the water. Envision a line from tail points angling down just below the lower bend of the of the hook and extending under the fly. This will give you and idea of the size of hackle you want. Realize that when the fly rides on the surface the tail and hackles will bend slightly and you still want the hook above the surface. On the Mustads this is usually about the length of the shank (not the entire hook length) Now there are hackle gauges set up I'm sure for these flies on the Mustads. But I couldn't tell you about all the other hook options out there.

 

I hope this helps. Others I'm sure will chime in who have more experience with these styles and my info may be corrected but this is how I have understood it and always tied them.

[Snowblind 0]

I tie a lot of the Wulff's as the are very effective on my local rivers for half-pounders.

 

I do tend to go one size up, I usually tie them on a 14 and use a 12-ish sized hackle.

 

One nice thing about the Wulff is it works just about all your basic tying skills at once.

 

Sort of a capstone fly. =)

 

(Missing tying in a wingcase, but that is about it)