Hey everyone. Help me identify this bottom right fly if you can. A friend tied all of these these for me 12 years ago when I left Japan, before I fly fished… and a local friend who is a guide can’t identify that bottom right one. It makes me wonder if this is a pattern used to represent something in Japan or other parts of Asia.
The one on the left looks like a wooly bugger or some other kind of streamer, and top right seems like a caddis… but if I some how have those wrong feel free to tell me as well. I’m no biologist!
Hi @tonyp and welcome to the forum. Thanks for joining us.
That is a rather abused royal coachman. It looks like antron or something similar was used for the wing, which is a more modern interpretation of the fly. That is a very classic western style dry fly. It looks like black hackle was also used instead of the traditional brown hackle.
Depending on what source you read, it’s estimated that fly pattern has existed for almost 200 years!
The upper right is likely supposed to be an elk or deer hair caddis.
Thanks Peder. That is the one that I was curious about. Prior to tenkara I really just used streamers and still get overwhelmed by the amount of dry flies that are out there. It’s one reason why I think that I enjoy tenkara and using the reverse hackle kebari style flies. Less to think about… though I do throw a san juan worm or caddis at times.
