What do you think of when you try to envision the all-time classic American dry fly? Some will think the Adams or maybe any Catskill dry fly. Some might even say the Elk Hair Caddis, which I do think is moving into legendary status.
But a lot of people would think this one– the Royal Coachman. And this pattern does have a pretty interesting history. If you’re not familiar, the original one was simply the Coachman, created by Tom Bosworth in the 1830’s. He was a carriage driver, or coachman, for several of the British monarchs.
His original was a wet fly– just a peacock herl body, a brown soft hackle up front and then some white wings. One early change was making the wings from gray duck slips, and that fly became a Lead Wing Coachman.
Both these versions made it over to the states and by the late 1800s was one of our most popular flies. It was prominently featured in Mary Orvis Marbury’s “Favorite Flies and their Histories” from 1892. Now back up a little bit to 1878 and John HaIley, a professional fly dresser and shop owner in New York City, added the red band to make it a bit more durable. He also added a tail of barred wood duck.
Now it was still a wet fly, but with that change, the Royal Coachman was born. Now fast forward again to the late 1800s and famed Catskill tier Theodore Gordon, who was on his kick of turning wet flies into dry flies, did it with this one.
And gradually the barred wood duck tail gave way to golden pheasant tippets. You might even see it today tied with brown hackle fibers for a tail, or even deer or elk hair. Now the original coachman, the almost 200-year-old British wet fly is still one of the best patterns ever created.
But what John Hailey and Theodore Gordon did was make it royal. And some would say the most iconic American fly ever. If you haven’t tied or fished one of these things in a while, give it another shot. It’s not really a difficult tie and if you get it right, it is simply a beautiful, elegant pattern that still catches a lot of fish.
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