The Royal Wulff

[George Werbacher 0]

 I started tying in August of last year and have dived in head first. The name Leon and Joan Wulff came up so much in my readings I was in awe at the detail and time spent taking this sport to such a high level. I realized the more I learned that I was only touching the very tip of so much passion and knowledge trying to be shared. This pattern has stood the test of time, can be fished all season, and so many patterns have sprung from this pattern. I wanted to share the base and hopefully expand this into a series of patterns who drew their inspiration from it.

Rolling out the carpet..or shall I say the red silk skirt for The Royal Wulff.  

[skeet3t 0]

Many years ago, Lee Wulff was on an episode of Walker Cay Chronicles. Lee and Flip Pallot were trout fishing in Colorado. Lee tied a Royal Wulff freehand! He said he tied flies for two years before someone told him about a vise. The RW is one of the classic patterns. Nice fly. You need to field test it now.

[George Werbacher 0]

Just now, skeet3t said:

Many years ago, Lee Wulff was on an episode of Walker Cay Chronicles. Lee and Flip Pallot were trout fishing in Colorado. Lee tied a Royal Wulff freehand! He said he tied flies for two years before someone told him about a vise. The RW is one of the classic patterns. Nice fly. You need to field test it now.

14 days and counting till I open the camp. 
 

[Moshup 0]

Leo ?    I had an Uncle Leo from Flatbush.  Any relation ?

[Jaydub 0]

Uncle Leo?

[Moshup 0]

59 minutes ago, Jaydub said:

Uncle Leo?

Lol.  You nailed it Jaydub. 

[George Werbacher 0]

27 minutes ago, Moshup said:

Lol.  You nailed it Jaydub. 

lol

 

[SilverCreek 0]

George I have a suggestions on the Royal Wulff.

It should should be tied with a split wing and not an upright wing,

 

 

[redietz 0]

2 hours ago, SilverCreek said:

It should should be tied with a split wing and not an upright wing,

From a conversation I had with him at a show, Mr Wulff tied all the Wulff style patterns with a single upright wing when he was tying for himself.  The split wing was only because customers wanted it -- it didn't add to the effectiveness of the fly.

At the same show, he demonstrated tying a size 28 Royal Wulff without benefit of a vise. 

[flytire 0]

in your video you state ostrich herl but youre using peacock herl

why did you tie in the hackle by the tip?

if its a dry fly why tie it on a "nymphing hook"?

see the video below

 

additional information/history

Over My Waders

Quack Coachman or is it a Royal Wulff? - Sparse Grey Matter

"Hair-wing Royal Coachman- Fly Angler's OnLine Volumn 7 week 21

[mikemac1 0]

George,

Over the 55+ years I've tied a lot of flies for both trout, warm water species and saltwater.  Whenever I want to embark on a new pattern that I haven't tied before, especially if it is somewhat complex like the Royal Wulff, I try and get my hands on a well tied reference copy.  Photos and You Tube videos are great, but having a properly tied, properly proportioned fly in-hand does wonders for helping you tie a better fly.  Try and replicate that reference fly in as much detail as possible, then branch out with your own style as you see fit.  If your first attempts don't replicate the reference fly, keep trying and researching info on the tying techniques that will help you solve problematic elements of your ties.

Mike

[George Werbacher 0]

5 hours ago, flytire said:

in your video you state ostrich herl but youre using peacock herl

why did you tie in the hackle by the tip?

if its a dry fly why tie it on a "nymphing hook"?

see the video below

 

additional information/history

Over My Waders

Quack Coachman or is it a Royal Wulff? - Sparse Grey Matter

"Hair-wing Royal Coachman- Fly Angler's OnLine Volumn 7 week 21

Don’t really watch other videos. Just books and photos. Didn’t catch that ostrich and peacock mix up and will have to correct that. I tie in by the tip because I always crowd the eye. Rookie mistake. I am also confused on video title..I was tying a royal Wulff and not a coachman and pretty sure some subtle differences. Thank you for the great feedback. I don’t do other peoples videos because I really try hard for my own interpretation and hope people like you point out the mistakes. 
 

I am on a really limited budget for materials and find the best hook I can. Someone posted that I shouldn’t tie without proper materials. Lol...been oil painting for years and never told anyone not to paint without specific materials. We learn to adapt and work with what we have on the table.

[George Werbacher 0]

32 minutes ago, mikemac1 said:

George,

Over the 55+ years I've tied a lot of flies for both trout, warm water species and saltwater.  Whenever I want to embark on a new pattern that I haven't tied before, especially if it is somewhat complex like the Royal Wulff, I try and get my hands on a well tied reference copy.  Photos and You Tube videos are great, but having a properly tied, properly proportioned fly in-hand does wonders for helping you tie a better fly.  Try and replicate that reference fly in as much detail as possible, then branch out with your own style as you see fit.  If your first attempts don't replicate the reference fly, keep trying and researching info on the tying techniques that will help you solve problematic elements of your ties.

Mike

Thanks,

.best advice ever...I have said and been told the same thing in art reproduction for years. Do you have an extra one tied by Leo or Joan I can take apart. Lol, just messing around. The critiquing on this forum actually motivates me to more hours on the vice paying attention to subtle details. With each tie I take more and more notes and practice more and in a few months will revisit and compare. In a few years maybe I will be able to post here with a few less obvious mistakes. The only people who don’t make mistakes are the ones not doing anything.

 

[Moshup 0]

George,

A lot of these guys have a ton of stuff that they’ll probably  take to the grave with them . Maybe one of them will send

you a care package beforehand... 🙂

[flytire 0]

maybe it will make sense

in todays tying it is called a "royal wulff" but it wasn't always called that

"The hair-wing Royal Coachman dry fly was the creation of L.Q. Quackenbush, one of the early stalwarts of the Beaverkill Trout Club above Lew Beach. Quackenbush liked the fan-wing Royal Coachman, except that it was fragile and floated badly, and in 1929 he suggested to Reuben Cross that white hair wings might work better. Cross tied some using upright wings of calftail and tail fibers of natural brown buck. It worked perfectly, and Catskill fishermen soon labeled it the Quack Coachman in honor of its peripatetic inventor.

"Lee Wulff also worked out his famous Gray Wulff and White patterns in the Adirondacks in 1929, in a successful effort to find imitations of the big Isonychia duns and Ephemera spinners that would float well on the tumbling Ausable at Wilmington. These Wulffs have proven themselves superb flies, from Maine to California and British Columbia, and spawned a large family of patterns using different bodies and hackles. Wulffs have so completely dominated the upright hair wings that L.Q. Quackenbush and his hair-wing Coachman are almost forgotten, and his innovation is now commonly called the Royal Wulff."
From Trout by Ernest Schwiebert, 1978

reference - Over My Waders

 

The Hair-wing Royal Coachman is sometimes referred to as the Wulff Royal Coachman, or the Royal Wulff.

Lee Wulff did not create the Hair-wing Royal Coachman and had no influence in its creation. Lee created the Gray Wulff and White Wulff during his stay in the Adirondacks during 1929.

A member of the Beaverkill Trout Club, located in the Catskills, created the The Hair-wing Royal Coachman in 1930. The two Wulff dry flies and the Hair-wing Royal Coachman just happened by coincidence at the same time and near each other.

As a matter of record, the Hair-wing Royal Coachman was created by Q. L. Quackenbush, one of the early members of the Beaverkill Trout Club above Lew Beach, NY. Q. L. loved the fan-winged Royal Coachman, but the fly's wings were very fragile.

Q. L. Quackenbush asked Reuben Cross of Neversink, New York to dress some Royal Coachmen using a substitute for the fragile white mandarin (duck) fan wings. Ruben asked his supplier for any part of an animal with stiff, kinky, white hair. All the supplier could find was some impala tails, that exactly suited the task.

Originally the members of the Beaverkill Trout Club called the fly The Quack Coachman, for it was created and tied for Q. L., better known to his friends as 'Quack.'

reference - "Hair-wing Royal Coachman- Fly Angler's OnLine Volumn 7 week 21