For the last five or six years this pattern has been tried in every possible conditions, on all kinds on water and for several types of fish, trout and char (both anadromes and freshwater) and for grayling, and from just a few days after the ice has gone of the water, and all through the season until the very end of autumn. The only tip worth giving on how to fish this fly is to present it right in front of the fish, just hard enough to catch the attention of your pray, and be ready to set the hook!
The excellence of this fly comes from its ability to imitate a whole lot of different insects, such as hymenopteras (ants and sawflies), houseflies, different kinds of gnats and bibios (bibionomorphaes), and even a few caddis flies. On the materials chosen for this fly, it is scraped down to only the eccentials; an chunky iridescent body with a moderate numbers of legs (hackle), a ribbing for protection, and a bright wing with good floatability (even when wet), and makes the fly easy to see for the angler. The construction are in its entirety made for efficiency and durability, and to still produce even after catching plenty of fish.
The idea behind the massive head of the fly is to make it look more like a terrestrial bug that has fallen on the water, and is about to drown. This makes this fly good both on windy days and for fish that is picky and don't want to rise on bugs that stand on top of the surface, like newly hatched mayfly duns.
*Step by step below the video*
Raven's Fancy or Aero-Wing Palmer Coachman
Hook: Standard dryfly hook, size 10 - 20 Thread: Black Body: Peacock herl Hackle: Dark brown, dark grey or black, palmered over 2/3 of the body. Ribbing: Extra small oval gold tinsel Wing: Tiemco Aero Dry Wing, medium dun
Step 1: The Hook and Thread
For this tutorial I use a Mustad R50 size 16, one of the better sizes for this pattern. The thread is black.
Step 2: The Ribbing
Tie in a x-small oval gold tinsel.
Step 3: The peacock herl
Tie in two bronze peacock herls. Feel free to experiment with colors, both dyed red and dyed green herl has worked for me at times.
Step 4: The Hackle
Tie in a Coachman brown rooster hackle, for this fly I do prefer genetic hackle. Black or grizzly hackle can also be used as a variation. Notice that I do not tie in the hackle all the way at the end of the body. I want to get a few turns of peacock herl wrapped behind the hackle, Usually I tie in the hackle around the 2/3rd to 3/4th mark of the body.
Step 5: Wrap the herl
Wrap the herl counter-clockwise in adjacent turns forward, for extra security one can wrap the thread around the herl or add a light coat of superglue to the under-body before wrapping the herl. Leave enough space in front for the head!
Step 6: Wrap the Hackle
Wrap the hackle in three or four turns forward. Too much hackle will not benefit the fly in any way!
Step 7: Wrap the Ribbing
Wrap the ribbing clockwise in five equal turns over the body and hackle. Make sure not to trap any hackle-fibers.
Step 8a: Trim the Hackle
Trim the hackle on both the top and on the underside. An insect only has three legs on each side, but for a fly this size, I think not more than 15-20 fibers on each side is sufficient.
Step 8b: Trim the Hackle
The fly seen from above after trimming the hackle.
Step 9: Tie in the wing
The wing of this fly consists of the wonderful Aero Dry Wing from Tiemco in the color Light Dun. Tie in a length of yarn on the middle, so one end is facing back and the other end forward. For a size 16 I use only one strand of yarn and pick out about 1/4th of the fibers. For a size 10 to 14, a whole strand will do, and for size 18 and smaller, about half a strand will do. This is because the wing will be doubled.
Step 10: Double the wing
Fold the forward facing end backward and secure it while forming the head. The head on this fly is made large on purpose. The shape of the head should be round, finish off with a few good turns of whip finish.
Step 11a: Shape the Wing
Stroke the fibers of the wing backwards so they lay parallel with the body. Trim the fibers with a sharp pair of scissors, the wing should be one head-length longer than the bend of the hook.
Step 11b: Shape the Wing
This is the ideal wing-length.
Step 13: Varnish the Head
Give the fly a few good coats of varnish so that the head gets nice and shiny. Your new favorite dry-fly is now complete! Tight lines!
The Raven's Fancy, or often called the Aero-Wing Palmer Coachman is probably the one fly I maybe fish the most often when I have no clue of what the fish are taking. It has several years been the fly I catch both my first and my last fish on of the season, and sometimes it has even been the fly that I have caught the most on during the whole year. It was originally designed to be a stonefly imitation, and was tied very sparse and did provide success during certain hatchings. But still I felt the pattern, in its simplicity, had a much larger potential, so I began experimenting with proportions.
Shortly before I started to develop this improved version I had been at a lake where there was a billion black flies of some kind of chunky diptera that made the whole of the experience quite unpleasant, despite quite a few good brownies in the net. I was thinking back to one of the flies that the trouts seem to like, and that I caught three of them on that day; a Coachman in the traditional wetfly style, that I managed to present on top of the surface for a little while. The fly didn't need much time floating as the trouts was quick to take it after it landed. I quickly began to make a hybrid between my "stonefly" and the Coachman, and on the very next trip to the same lake, I quickly found my favorite among the few different prototypes.
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All photos are taken by me and shall not be used without permission.