With origins in the 20’s the Wulff is as much a style of fly as a fly in its own right. It is certainly one of the quintessential dry flies and in some shape or form you will find variants in most fly boxes. Whilst the originals were tied using elk hair tails and upright upright divided calf wings I lean toward variants that have buoyant deer hair tails and divided wings.
Bung flies are used in both running and still water and typically they are used to suspend one or two heavier ‘bait’ flies at various depths where fish may be holding or feeding. The key elements for a successive bung fly are of course viability and buoyancy. The following tie use untreated sheep wooll complete with it’s natural oils for buoyancy and bright polar fiber for viability.
This is just the simplest imitation of a snow flake caddis laying on the surface of the water. The shape is right and it floats well.
As many of you will be aware there is a Welsh fly called a “Green Peter”. It was designed as a dry fly but is also a great Loch Style bob or middle dropper fly.
I have changed the materials from the originals to include a couple of my fly tying favorites namely marabou for the tail, peacock herl for the body and a crow breast feather up front. If you swap the front feather to a blue feather such as swamp hen or a smallish peacock breast feather you have the also popular blue Zulu.
Whilst the original tail was brown cock hackles I sometimes use grizzly cock hackles, and whilst the original body was yellow chenille ribbed with fawn chenille I prefer a yellow or fawn chenille body ribbed with a palmered undersized brown hackle and ribbed with fine silver thread. I also sometimes substitute turkey feather slips or bunched up church window feathers for the wings.
The biggest problem with many termite and ant flies is that because you only use and only need two wraps of hackle to represent the legs they unfortunately have a tendency to sink. This foam termite whilst still looking realistic overcomes that problem.
On hot summer days or at almost any time for that matter you can get huge hatches of termites and flying ants. They vary in colour but the dominant hatches are of brown termites, red ants and black ants. When the fish are feeding on ants they just sup the insects down one by one often at the exclusion of all other food sources. If your fly imitates the ant well you have a better than equal chance of it being considered part of the food chain.
The combination of materials and the structure of the tie provide a fly that floats well and has a good buggy appearance. I don’t tie them as representations of any particular Dun or Spinner (imago) stage of any specific insect but I do try to either select appropriate colored materials to match various terrestrials that may find themselves on a trout’s menu or to add a hot spot or to to solicit an inquiring strike.
If it’s a hot day, a warm balmy night, if water is rising over previously dry ground or almost any time for that matter you can get huge hatches of ants. They vary in colour but the dominant hatches are of black meat ants. When the fish are feeding on ants they just sup the insects down one by one often at the exclusion of all other food sources. The best technique for ant feeders is to grease your leader except for the last 60 cm or so and to cover individual fish or place your fly amongst the naturals in the path of feeding fish.
