Renegade Dry Fly

[JerryCoviello]

The Renegade
Was created in Wyoming by Taylor 'Beartracks' Williams around the late 1920's. Fly has been used in lakes and streams and known as an excellent cutthroat pattern.

 

[tomgamber]

I remember tying those when I first started some 30 years ago in Idaho and thinking I was doing it for practice because this was the dumbest looking fly ever. Then I tied one on (because the pines had more of my flies than I did) and boom. High altitude, high noon. Saved the day. Made sure I had some whenever heading "up" to the lakes.

 

[redietz]

JerryCoviello wrote:
The Renegade
... known as an excellent cutthroat pattern.

It's an excellent pattern period. I've probably caught more trout on it in spring creeks and tailwaters than any other dry. Tied small, it functions pretty much as Griffith's Gnat but easier to see. With its profile, it makes a passable ant imitation. Its design not only has the appearance of movement, but it skitters very well if you want actual movement. It also supports a dropper well.

Once, out of perverseness, I wanted to see how well it did during a sulfur hatch. Who know why, but it did so well that it's now often the first dry I tie on during that hatch. (It doesn't work nearly so well during a spinner fall, however.)

That's just as a dry. It was originally designed as a wet, and still functions very well in that capacity. Try swinging it in March when there are little brown stones on the water, or in June when there are yellow or lime sallies. I've fished it successfully on bottom as a nymph and even stripped like a streamer.

It's got to be one of the most versatile flies in existence. If I were forced to fish only one pattern for all my trout fishing, it would be a Renegade.

I prefer to tie it with white thread, because it blends better with the front hackle, even though black is probably more traditional.

 

[Out4Trout]

One of my favorite flies to fish. As mentioned above, it can be fished many different ways. Was my go to out in Colorado and I did not think it was known in PA. I have had some great success this past spring and summer using it here in PA. Also as stated above, the smaller the better with this one.

 

[GenCon]

Nice fly Jerry

GenCon

 

[laszlo]

Rumored to be Hemmingway's favorite fly

 

[tomgamber]

laszlo wrote:
Rumored to be Hemmingway's favorite fly

having fished the waters in the Sun Valley area I was skeptical of this statement. I had him pegged for a wet fly swinger. A very brief bit of research produced this:

His favorite three fly cast was a Woodcock Yellow and Green, for a dropper, Shrimp fly in the middle and a worm fly or Coch-y-bondhu for a tail fly

I fished mostly Caddis variations on the Wood and Little Wood. Silver creek was frustratingly technical and I'm not sure how a Renegade would have been. Might have been good on the many trout ponds at that altitude.

 

[afishinado]

laszlo wrote:
Rumored to be Hemmingway's favorite fly

Interesting history and explanation of what (they think) the fly represents and why it works according to this article:

I have used this pattern on many still water lakes in Utah and it is especially successful in the Uinta Mountains. Once while fishing Smith and Morehouse Creek where it flowed into the reservoir I ran out of Renegades. No matter what fly I tried after that I couldn’t catch another fish.

This pattern originated along the Malad River in Idaho in the early 1930s. It was a favorite pattern of Ernest Hemingway. The Renegade is what is known as an attractor pattern — it doesn’t represent any particular type of insect or forage fish. Other attractor patterns include the Wulff patterns, Royal Coachman, Humpy’s, bivisibles and many others.

Some anglers believe that it represents midges mating. I believe the Renegade represents aquatic snails that can be found in just about any water in Utah, especially still waters. These snails will float upside down with their “foot” in the surface film of the water.

The fly is tied in a “fore and aft” style, which means that it has hackles at both the bend of the hook and just behind the eye. There are only four materials needed for this fly: a ginger or brown hackle, a cream hackle, Mylar or gold color tinsel, and peacock herl. The hook to use would be a dry fly hook in size 10 to 16. Now if you’re going to use the fly to represent a floating snail, I would use a light weight scud hook.

Link to source: https://www.standard.net/lifestyle/recreation/renegade-a-fly-that-works-everywhere/article_e097dc16-7381-570c-a003-43c18c257d5c.html

 

[redietz]

tomgamber wrote:
Silver creek was frustratingly technical and I'm not sure how a Renegade would have been.

It works in the Letort and Big Spring. I suspect it would work on Silver.