Waker Wulff (Hair Hackle) By Gretchen & Al Beatty
We assembled this pattern on a request from
a commercial fly customer who gave us a straight,
forward directive, “I don’t care what it is, just
tie me a steelhead dry fly that will float like
crazy and really skip across the water’s surface.”
This fly didn’t just happen it evolved over the
next couple of years. We tried heavily hackling it,
putting a moose hair skipping beard on it, and a
short, stiff plastic sliding spoon. Nothing seemed
to work like the customer really wanted. Finally
one day we decided to go back to the days when Al tied
small, hair-hackle dry flies. Those flies had
floated great we just needed to find out if hair
hackle would also make them skip over the water’s
surface. They did! The customer was happy and so
were we!
You might think the story would end there and it
certainly could have. We tie a lot of custom flies
and don’t always fish with them. There is just
not the time to fish with everything we tie on
a commercial basis. However, the Waker Wulff did
find its way into one of our fly boxes we keep
in the drift boat but remained unused for a
couple of years. One fall afternoon we were
drifting the Yellowstone River and even though
the fishing was great the catching was really slow.
Out of desperation Al tied it on his tippet,
punched a cast to the bank, let it sit for a
moment, and then gave it two hard strips. The
water exploded as a heavy brown trout grabbed
it and headed to the middle of the river. A
sleepy afternoon quickly changed into an
adrenaline charged super day.
Does this fly always work this good? No, it
does not but it has saved more than one trout
fishing day for us. It may do the same for you
as well. We also consider it an important
addition to our steelhead fly box since
returning to Idaho. There is nothing like
catching a steelhead on a dry fly as it
skitters across the water’s surface.
Materials for the Waker Wulff
Hook: Salmon, #2 - #8.
Thread: Red floss, single strand or size A un-waxed thread.
Tail: Moose body hair.
Body: Red floss.
Wing: Calf tail hair.
Hackle: Spun deer hair.
Head: Floss.
Instructions for the Waker Wulff (Hair Hackle):
Originally published June 21, 2004 on Fly Anglers Online.