Wickham's Fancy: Wet or dry fly?

Ah, the Wickham's Fancy... Such a well composed fly, and a favorite of mine regarding classic troutflies, and with good reason. The fly itself is pretty old and I believe it dates back to the first half of the 19th century in the early Victorian England. It has also been a favorite, and praised by a whole lot of renown fly anglers, among other the Grandfather of nymph fishing, G.E.M. Skues.

On this very fly I took my record trout on; 3,1 kilograms. This fly is tied on a quite heavy wetfly hook I was gifted a long time ago. It's one of the the most beautiful troutfly hooks I've ever tied on!

First of all I'd like to say a few words about how I tie them, and what proportions and factors I rank most important. This shouldn't be too complicated, even for a novice tier, but it doesn't make them any less important! When I tie my Wickham's Fancy I stay true to the original materials, but I would prefer modern flat mylar tinsel rather than the metal stuff; the reason being as simple as it's cheaper and doesn't weight the fly down - after all, I fish this as a dryfly.

The tailThe tail should be about the length of the body, but not shorter, and it should be plenty with fibers. I have often seen on vintage examples of this fly that the body is stretched just a tad behind the point of the barb and close into the start of the hookbend, this little detail can be worth adapting to your flies as well. (If this detail is only for esthetic, or if it will actually make a difference on the water I can't say for sure, but rather safe than sorry, right..?)

Body and ribbingThe body is pretty basic by all means; flat gold tinsel. I do prefer the modern mylar stuff for its lightness compared to metal. For the ribbing, I usually stay true to the gold wire; despite the weight it will enhance the durability of the fly a lot. A small oval or round gold tinsel has its benefits of being lighter, but can be more fragile for sharp trout teeth.

The hackle Based upon my own experiences the hackle, it's color and it's proportions are of the key elements of the fly; they should not be too thick and stiff, and not too long. First of all, the genetic saddle hackles are of no use in this fly. As a matter of fact, I have found the inexpensive Chinese necks to be the most superior for this fly. I guess most tiers have a cheap natural red rooster cape laying around somewhere, and this is one of the flypatterns that makes this "otherwise useless" cape become very valuable. I am also a bit particular when it comes to the color of the hackle; they should be more ginger-red than brown-red. For the palmered hackle in the body I always go a size smaller than what is traditional. (For example if I was tying on a size 12 hook, I will pick a size 14 hackle. Using my hackle gauge as a reference). I trim of the fluff from the bottom of the feather using my scissors, and palmer it backwards and then locking it in with the ribbing.

Notice the difference in fiberlenght on the hackle and the collar. This one is tied with duck quill wings, a slightly lighter shade of slate than you often find on jay and starling wings.

The wing There are several materials to choose from here; natural duck quill or the slate colored wing feathers from starling or blue jay are the ones I've used most myself. I find starling and blue jay equally good, they both have a nice color to them, holds a nice shape, even after being fished, and also holds oils and other liquid floatants very well. The wings should be tied just like on most classic wetflies with a duck quill wing where the tips are pointing away from each other. – Yes, this is a dryfly with a wetfly wing!

The collar hackle and headNote that I use two hackels in this fly; one in the body, and one as a collar in front of the wing. The latter should be slightly larger than the hook and on size 12 hook I would go up to a size 10 hackle; also tied in at the bottom, and tied in adjacent turn to form a good, dense collar hackle. The reason why I tie in the hackle from the root end is to get the tapering of the fibers to decrease forward, this gives the fly a very nice effect on the water. Last we have to form the head, and don't be afraid to force the hacklefibers in the collar backwards a little bit. The head should be nice and round, and not too small. Finnish of with a few coats of varnish to make the head nice and glossy.

Wickham's Fancy: A dry wetfly

Hook: Your favorite standard dryfly hook, size 10 to 16 Thread: Black Tail: Hacklefibers from a natural red rooster, more ginger-red than brown-red in color.

Body: Flat gold tinsel Ribbing: A thin gold wire, or a fine gold oval tinsel Hackle: Neckfeather from a natural red rooster, more ginger-red than brown-red in color and slightly under-sized. Wing: Slate colored quill, duck, starling or blue jay ect. Collarhackle: Neckfeather from a natural red rooster, more ginger-red than brown-red in color and slightly oversized. Head: Black

A sunny afternoon a few years ago I manage to make three nice searun browntrouts rise on the Wickham's Fancy. And yes, they got knocked..!

A few advises The experiences I have gained on fishing with the Wickham's Fancy is that it seem to produce best on warm and sunny days, throughout July, but sometimes it has has proven excellent into August as well. The time of day stretches from noon and to about 5'o clock in the afternoon when fishing it as a dry fly; and, as a wet fly it can be worth a try late in the evening and early in the morning.

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All photos are taken by me and shall not be used without permission.