Trudes have been around in one form or another for a long time; lots of variations although the basic construction is pretty much the same (tie this one with peacock and it becomes a Western Coachman).
hook - Dai Riki 320 #12
thread - Danville 6/0 black
tag - tinsel gold
tail - Golden pheasant tippets
body - dubbing black
wing - calftail white
hackle - brown
Part 1
Mash down barb, start thread at 60% mark, wrap back to point above barb
tie in tinsel, wrap down bend and back; tie off/trim
even the tips on some GP tippet, measure (shank length); tie in
dub thread, dub tapered body to 60% mark
clean, stack, measure (shank length) a clump of calftail; tie in, trim butts at an angle and cover with thread
I notice you put a tag on a lot of your patterns - is that just the mood you’re in, or are there guidelines when to tag or not? And whether to use a color or tinsel?
The gold tag was kind of a nod to the original wet version; I’ve also seen it on a few standard dry and trude RGKs so I thought I’d put it in. I’m sure there are guidelines on tags for traditional/vintage flies, but I have very little experience with them so I can’t say. I’d consider using opalescent mylar as an option - really like the effects you can get with that.
ScottP. the Rio Grande King became my go to fly when I was about 9 years old. Since that time on I used the Rio on three continents and had success on all. The one fish story is the catch of a fish that looked just like a Barracuda and put up a good fight. It was about a foot long and caught off a pier in Cam Rahn Bay Vietnam.
