Up Chuck
Note: While cleaning out a drawer of fly tying materials in the summer of 2000 Dick Talluer created this design. He found some woodchuck, envisioned some Wulff-style dry flies and went to work. Up right wings with woodchuck, thus the name the “Up Chuck”. The pattern and the story behind it are in the May/June 2003 issue of American Angler magazine. “The reason for the orange thread is that when the fly gets damp, the thread will glow and enhance the body color.” Dick gives credit for this idea to Francis Betters and his Ausable Wullf pattern. Tying instructions
- Start thread.
- Clip, clean, stack woodchuck guard hairs (conservative amount) for the wing. Wing should not exceed the length of the hook shank.
- Tie in the woodchuck guard hairs at about 1/3 of the way down the hook shank. Trim the butt ends at an angle to produce a tapered body. Cover wrap all the trimmed ends with thread.
- Push the woodchuck hair up and create a thread dam in front of the wing.
- Now divide the hair into two equal bunches. Form the wings with a couple of X-wraps and figure eights. Once the two wings are formed wrap the thread to the bend of the hook.
- Clip, clean, stack woodchuck guard hairs for the tail. Length of the tail should be slightly longer than the hook shank. Tie in the tailing material and cover wrap with the thread. We should have a nice orange thread body at this time. Wrap thread back to hook bend.
- Place some dubbing on the thread and wrap a nice tapered body. Be sure to leave space behind the wings for hackle.
- Tie in both hackle feathers by the butt ends. Shinny side facing forward toward to the hook eye.
- Wrap the hackle feathers forward and tie them off one at a time.
- Whip finish and head cement.