The fly box · No. 04 of 36
Grey Wulff
Large mayfly duns, above all the true Mayfly of late spring.
- Kind
- Dry
- Hook sizes
- 8–14
- Season
- Spring, summer
- For
- Trout
- At the vice
- A moderate tie
The dressing
| Hook | Standard or 2X long dry fly, barbless or barb flattened, sizes 8–14 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Grey or black, 6/0 (140 denier) |
| Tail | Natural brown bucktail, shank length |
| Body | Grey muskrat or rabbit underfur dubbing, moderately full |
| Rib | None |
| Hackle | Two medium blue dun cock hackles, wound full |
| Wing | Natural brown bucktail, upright and divided |
Tying it
- Tie in a stacked bunch of brown bucktail a third back from the eye, tips forward.
- Stand the hair up, divide it into two wings with figure-of-eight turns and post each wing with a wrap or two.
- Tie in a smaller bunch of bucktail for the tail and bind the butts down evenly.
- Dub a tapered grey body from the tail up to the wings.
- Tie in the two blue dun hackles and wind them behind and in front of the wings.
- Whip finish and varnish.
Fishing it
During the Mayfly, pick a rising fish and put the fly a metre above it on 4X (0.18 mm), dead drift. Trout often take the big dun slowly, so pause before lifting; a quick strike pulls the fly away. Outside that fortnight a size 12 or 14 is a fine searching pattern on rough streams and a good evening fly when sedges are about. Dry it with a few false casts after each fish and it will float again.
Where it comes from
The Grey Wulff was among the first of Lee Wulff’s hair-wing dries, tied about 1929 to copy the big grey drakes of the rivers in New York State. It crossed the Atlantic and found a second home on British and Irish waters, where its bulk, its buoyancy and its plain grey outline make it a trusted fly when the Mayfly is up.