The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Here's the gospel:

Life Cycle

A lot of uppity know-it-alls have told me the Royal Wulff hatch is a myth. Well, I've seen it and have photos to prove it. You can laugh all you want, but the Royal Wulff is real. I even know the latin name. I met this smart lookin fella on the creek a few years ago who was spoutin a bunch of latin names of this bug and that bug so I asked him. At first he looked at me all funny like so I had to tell him everything I knew about Ol Wulffy. Once he knew what I was talkin about he thought for awhile and laughed and told me it must be called Wulffus Ridiculus. Yep, Wulffus Ridiculus. Well, he might know a bunch latin but I've studied this bug for years and I'm gonna tell you all about it.

Wulffus Ridiculus is some sort of may fly, at least from what I can tell. They start out on the river bottom as nymphs and when spring comes they crawl from under rocks in groups of 30 or more and shoot right up to the surface. That's why emergers don't work. They come flying up like little Polaris missles. Once they get on top, they do an insect square dance of all things. It's a sight to behold. After they do-see-do for awhile, the bugs split up in couples and fly off to the bushes where they court and carry on for awhile. As soon as they get all worked up, they crawl under the leaves and do the nutshell. [Appearantly Booger meant to say 'nuptial' but I have retained the original text, Ed.] They get their bug legs stickin every which...oops..sorry. It's interesting to watch. Once I gave em some beer to see if that would get em fired up but they just fell off the bushes. As soon as they finish...you know, the females take to the air and fly around the river in little V-formations. They do this so they can find some fast water to lay their litte eggs. As each of the little ladies finds a riffle or some other fast water, she peels off and does a high speed vertical dive right in the river.

I've done a lot of thinkin `bout this and I reckon it's so they can break through the surface film. You know a bug don't weigh very much. This behavior is called the Stuka maneuver because it was first observed by Johann Stuka in 1906. I learned that real late one night on Discovery channel. If the female gets through, she swims to the bottom, lays her eggs and hangs out til she croaks. I don't know what happens to the males. I do seem to remember in 1953, when I was still aboard ship, I think I seen swarms of males in the red light district of Bogota, Columbia. I could be wrong cause I was real plastered that night. Fishing the Royal Wulff Since the males haul ass to God knows where, the fish only get to eat the females. Trout are most likely to eat the ones that don't break the surface in their ovipositing death dive. Now, when they don't get through they're usually knocked senseless and float down stream til they get their shit together. The trout like to bush whack em while they're stunned. They sit down there watchin all this and then all of a sudden come flyin up and chomp em like it was their last meal. You wanna talk about rise forms, when a trout takes Ol Wulffy it's like a Ford Bronco being pitched in the river. The best artificial to trick Ol Mister Trout during the Wulff hatch is, believe it or not, the Royal Wulff. You tactics freaks don't have to worry.

It's real easy. Grease it, whip it and get ready for a fight. That's all I got, now Go Away!

 oldtrout

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