Hi, everyone,
I am a new to tying flies. I have a question about the fly patterns. What in the world how to know if one pattern is The Adams and the other is Royal Wulff. In other words, I am really confused about these: what is The Adams? what is Royal Wulff? And what is who knows what! I can understand the dry flies, wet flies, Nymphs and Streamers, but I always can’t a clue about how to define these pattern names.
Could some of you give me some advices?
Thanks very much.
these are just two very popular dry flies
here is the royal wulff:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin … art19.html
here is the adams dry fly:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin … art18.html
while you are there, i would suggest reading through all of the beginning articles archived on this site. IMO better than any book.
the adams was the first dry fly i learned to tie. i don’t know if i’ve ever actually tied a royal wulff (my brother always ties enough of them that i get his spares).
enter the name of the fly in Google (or your favourite search engine) and more than one link to the pattern will appear - or at least a picture of one.
The short answer is “welcome to the club”. It is confusing and without logic as anyone inventing a fly can name it what they want. A Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph tells you someting of its name, a Hornberg does not, nor does an Adams or a million other common fly names. Learn a few of the most common or universal flies that you might use and some of the others will come in time. If that little brown fuzzy thing with a little green collar up front seemed to work, look for more of the same. The fish don’t know the names either.
Books help, time and experience help but it is nothing to loose any sleep over.
jed
The Adams
Royal Wulff, also known as Hairwing Royal Coachman, originally name “Quacks Coachman” for it originator Q.L. Quackenbush.
The two fly patterns have nothing in common other than the hook. ~Parnelli
Welcome to the FAOL BB. I might confuse you now, their are three types of adams. They are the Adams Wulff, Adams, and the Adams Female. There are also four different parachute adams. Theres the Adams parachute, the HiVis Adams Parachute, the Para Wulff Adams, and the CDC parachute Adams. Have fun tying, I hope I didn’t confuse you to much. 
Warm Water
Sorry, i forgot the adams irresistible, and the Moose Mane Adams.
Warm Water
Get yourself a good pattern book such as Flies: The Best One Thousand by Randy Stetzer. It has pictures and recipes for 1000 different fly patterns. There are many similar books available.
And don’t forget the other Adams Family; Herman, Lilly, Eddie, Grandpa, Thing… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry, it was just too “Irresistible.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
Joe
So, the pattern’s name are just named by their inventor or by the convention of the people? Thanks Jed for the information about the names. Right now, I really get confused about them! There are just no standard to categorize the flie’s pattern? I think, the book Flies: The Best One Thousand by Randy Stetzer might be good. But I do want to get some book about how to distinguish the difference patterns. Is there a this kind of book? For example, I want to know what the Adams Family has in common? And what the Royal Wulff Familly has in common?.. and so on
Hi,
There are some flies where the “name” is a description of the fly. For example, with traditional north country spider flies (which are not, by the way, supposed to represent a spider) the names are things like “Partridge and Orange” or “Snipe and Purple”.
These names mean: “the hackle is partridge feather and the body is orange silk”, or “the hackle is a snipe feather and the body is purple silk”, etc.
And, there are the “Mallard and …” flies, like the “Mallard and Claret”, which are winged wet flies that use mallard feathers for the wings, and “claret” is the body colour. Mallard and Green, same thing just with a green body. These usually have a tail made from golden pheasant tippets, and often sport a collar hackle in the same colour as the body (though not always).
But, in general, these sort of descriptive names are the less common. You may get names that indicate the insect being represented (i.e. blue dun), or a name that reflects who popularised it (Hardy’s favorite; Tup’s indespensible, Greenwell’s Glory, …) or something that reflects a tale associated with it (Royal Coachman; Because it was based upon another fly, the Coachman, but with the red “waistband”, it must be Royal because it’s so finely dressed) and so on.
Eventually, you end up just using either a BBT or a WGJ (Big Black Thing, or a Wee Ginger Job), although sometimes a WBT and a BGJ are useful! ha! (H. McDowell’s joke) You’ll get used to it.
Wallershen,
First, realize that the ‘name’ of a fly pattern makes absolutley zero sense, has no basis in anything but fly tiers imaginations and matters not even a little bit to anyone except a few folks concerned with history.
An adams is a grayish to brownish (no one knows, really, what color it is ‘suposed’ to be-not that it matters…) fly tied in various sizes. It floats. This type of ‘dry fly’ (it’s NOT dry, why can’t we just say that it floats???) has a tail, a body, wings, and hackle. You can use different colors for each of these, and while it’s exactly the ‘same’ fly, since it’s colored differently, they ‘call’ it something else.
Now add in that someone actually thinks that the ‘material’ you use for the different parts, like different types of dubbing, quills, or whatever, for the body changes the ‘pattern’ and entitles THAT small and insignificant variation to have a whole different ‘name’.
If you are going to actually tie flies for yourself, you should disregard all the B.S. about ‘patterns’ and concern yourself with shape, size, and color, and the intended presentation (things like floatation for topwater flies, depth for subsurface, action, etc.). All the rest is just useless information and makes the whole sport of fly fishing seem like ancient golf when they had names for the clubs like ‘niblets’ and ‘wedgies’ and ‘mcray tomahawk slickers’.
Tie the same ‘fly’ in various colors and it’s still the same fly, just a different color. Tail, body, wing, hackle. Pick a color for each and tie them all the same. Choose the ‘materials’ for how they behave on the water, and disregard the rest. The fish won’t care about what material you used, can’t even comprehend that there is a difference between muskrat, rabbit, or even, (gasp!!!) FAKE fur.
Fly tying may, someday, get past it’s archaic past and move into some semblance of the 21st century. Doubt it though. Too many folks like to spout useless trivia to make them seem knowledgeable or important.
Too bad, though. Makes it tough on the new folks that just want to have some fun and catch some fish (which, by the way, is LOADS easier than all the gurus and fly fishing pundits would have you believe).
Sorry for the rant, but this is one of my personal ‘hot’ buttons. This SHOULD be very simple. That it isn’t is a real shame.
Good Luck!
Buddy
What we’re trying to do is to match the appearance of abug the fish want to eat. Sometimes they’ll eat almost any bug. Other times they become very picky and focus on one bug.
In my experience to date (and I’m old but not an long time fly fisher), and I could be wrong, there are some bugs they go for most of the time and that is why they become popular. But when they are focused on only one bug and one size it can make you crazy.
Frank Amato Publications (you can find them on the FAOL sponsors link) has some good books called hatch guides. Great color photos of the major bugs and instructions on how to choose/tie flies that match.
Your profile doesn’t show where you live, so I can’t be specific. Out here the book to get is “Hatch Guice for Western Streams” by Jim Schollmeyer.
And don’t forget the other Adams Family; Herman, Lilly, Eddie, Grandpa, Thing… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry, it was just too “Irresistible.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
Joe[/quote:6bed7]
No actually the Adams family is: Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grand Ma Ma, and Cousin It. Of course Lurch, Thing, and Cleopatra are not direct family.
Sorry, couldn’t resist either!
You are thinking to much. You are taking something that should be simple & fun and making it hard & complicated. Find what flies you need for the area that you fish. Tie these flies. Have fun and enjoy yourself. The more you get into it and the more that you read, things will fall into place better. I would hate to have a new tyer give up because he is hung up on names. Good luck.
And don’t forget the other Adams Family; Herman, Lilly, Eddie, Grandpa, Thing… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry, it was just too “Irresistible.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
Joe[/quote]
No actually the Adams family is: Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grand Ma Ma, and Cousin It. Of course Lurch, Thing, and Cleopatra are not direct family.
Sorry, couldn’t resist either![/quote:9b97d]
You’d think that a guy as cheesy as Joe would recognize a Munster when he saw it…
We now return you to your regularly scheduled (and often hijacked) thread.
Hi Wallershen,
As listed above, a book is a great way to go. One of the best beginners books is “The American Fly Tiers Manual” by Dave Hughes. The flies tied in it were tied by Randy Stetzer, a very good fly tyer. The flies in that book are well tied, with good proportions.
More extensive books include the book by Randy Stetzer listed above, or such books as “Fly Platterns of the Umpqua Feather Merchants” by Randall Kaufmann. Often these books have flies categorized by Generic Type, such as all of the “Wulff” or all of the “Stimulators” of the various types together.
With a bit more specifics on your basic question, there are truly a lot of different flies. Some such as the “Adams” first tied by Ben Haliday, and named after “Dr. Adams”, are so well known that virtually any fly tier will know it. Others are not well known or are a regional pattern only.
Many types of flies are of a generic family such as the “Wulffs”, of the type tied by Lee Wulff. These flies use hair, (such as moose, deer, elk, or calf), for the tail and wings of the fly. Such flies float much better than the older “Catskill” flies which are less heavily hackled and don’t fly as well.
“Stimulators” are stonefly patterns, and are in many sizes and colors, just as are actual stoneflies.
The “American Fly Tiers Manual” that I mentioned above list most of the very well known flies. If you know the patterns in it you will know quite a few of the standard patterns that everyone knows.
An advantage of knowing the standard patterns, is that when someone says “#20 blue winged olives (BWO)” are coming off, you will know that a small olive mayfly with dun wings is hatching, etc. Also, the well known and standard patterns, such as the Adams and pheasant tail, etc. have been around for a long time for a reason…they work.
Regards,
Gandolf
And don’t forget the other Adams Family; Herman, Lilly, Eddie, Grandpa, Thing… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry, it was just too “Irresistible.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
Joe[/quote]
No actually the Adams family is: Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grand Ma Ma, and Cousin It. Of course Lurch, Thing, and Cleopatra are not direct family.
Sorry, couldn’t resist either![/quote:a4d60]
Bamboozle,
Mea culpa, mea culpa…This is what happens when I have a Senior Moment while sipping three fingers of cheap whiskey. I was describing the Munsters instead of the Adams’. :lol: :shock: :lol: :shock: Thanks for clearing that up.
Joe
And don’t forget the other Adams Family; Herman, Lilly, Eddie, Grandpa, Thing… :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Sorry, it was just too “Irresistible.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
Joe[/quote]
No actually the Adams family is: Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grand Ma Ma, and Cousin It. Of course Lurch, Thing, and Cleopatra are not direct family.
Sorry, couldn’t resist either![/quote:7f20b]
Bamboozle,
Mea culpa, mea culpa…This is what happens when I have a Senior Moment while sipping three fingers of cheap whiskey. I was describing the Munsters instead of the Adams’. :lol: :shock: :lol: :shock: Thanks for clearing that up.
Joe[/quote:7f20b]
what did i start now :?:
Warm Water
Just remember that the term “Royal” is usually only applied when the fly has a red band…
Cheers