The Renegade

The Renegade

• Hook: Dry fly, sizes 12 to 20
• Tag: (optional) Gold Krystal Flash
• Rear Hackle: Brown Dry Fly hackle
• Body: Peacock (spun in dubbing loop for durability)
• Front Hackle: White Dry Fly hackle

Best overall looking method
Use peacock herl from close to the eye. Tie the herl in by the tips, with the concave side up (away from the hook).   This method provides the fullest, best looking, flies. The disadvantage, there are only a few herls close to the eyes. I would use this method for “special” flies (gifts, contests, etc.)

Most consistent outcome
If using strung peacock, tie it in by the tips (not butts), then spin a rope with a dubbing loop. The spinning causes the herl to flare outwards and makes a consistently even rope.  This has the advantage also of reinforcing the herl with the doubled up thread core, which removes the need to rib the fly with wire.  I used 70 denier tan thread on this one. Also, please excuse the cut off hackle barbs; this fly sacrificed, not for a fish, but for a photograph.

Most inconsistent outcome
Tying in the strung herl by the butts had had the worst looking flies, the shaft of the herl sometimes covers up the fuzz. Look for gaps in the coverage.

Background
Peacock comes packaged like nature made it, attached to the stalk (but removed from the bird), or by individual herls strung together.

The best herl comes from the stalk, closest to the eye.

The front side of the herl is convex, the back side is concave. The concave side should be pointing up when you tie in, to get the best flaring when you wind the herl on.

Look closely at the back side of the herl, the stem is much more visible. By tying in with this stem up (concave up), when you wrap, the stem portion gets buried against the hook shank.

Compare the herl coming from the eye and from a string. Notice how the eye herl has even fuzz on both sides of the stem. For the strung herl, one side is better than the other. For strung herl, its best to twist it into a rope, so that the best sides come forward. The eye herl is on top, strung on the bottom (but you could tell that already). These are photos of the “back side” or concave side of the herl.

The starling feathers are usually small, and work well on flies size 14 and smaller. Other feathers may be substituted like partridge, hen, and quail.

Peacock herl is fragile, this demo shows adding a wire rib to reinforce the herl, so you can catch a few fish on the same fly.

• Hook: (use any standard dry or wet fly hook)
• Add a bead if you want
• Thread: black 6/0 or 8/0
• Rib: small copper wire, I often use red
• Hackle: Starling body feathers

Fish these like any soft hackle, on the swing or as a nymph.