Tying the Royal Coachman

Wings: White mallard quill, upright and divided

1. Put the bend of the hook in the vise. Hold the thread in your left hand, bobbin in right and starting 1/4 of the way from the bend of the hook wrap the thread over top of the hook 5 times moving towards the eye then back over the thread towards the back of the hook. Continue wrapping until you get to the bend of the hook. It should look like this...

2. Cut a small clump of golden pheasant tippet about the same length as the hook. Place the ends that you cut over top of the thread wraps 1/4 of the way up from the bend in the hook. Wrap the ends down with 4 to 5 turns of thread and make sure the fibers stays on top of the hook. Cut the ends of the fibers that are sticking out from in front of your thread wraps at an angle sloping down. It should look like this...

3. Now tie in a strand of peacock hearl. Lay one end across the top of the hook and secure it down with 4 to 5 thread wraps. Advance your thread about 1/8 inch. Now spin the peacock hearl forward and secure down. Trim off any extra. It should look like this...

4. Now lay one end of the red floss across the top of the hook directly in front of the peacock hearl and secure it down with 4 to 5 thread wraps. Wrap back toward the peacock hearl so that your floss is directly against the hearl. Now advance your thread forward another 1/8 inch. Wrap the floss toward the eye of the hook for 1/8 inch and secure down with 2 thread wraps. It should look like this...

5. Now take another peacock hearl and secure it down with 4 to 5 thread wraps at the same point as where you just secured the floss. Advance your thread to 1/8 inch behind the eye of the hook. Now spin the peacock hearl up the shank on the hook to 1/8 inch from the eye of the hook and secure down with 4 to 5 thread wraps. It should look like this...

6. Now select the quills that you want to use from a mallard feather. Cut about 10 to 15 quills from the spine of the feather making sure not to break the bond that they share between each other. Notice that they also have a slight bent to them from the spine to the tips. Making sure that the tips curve out, tie the ends that you trimmed from the spine to the hook, securing with 4 to 5 thread wraps. The quills should stand straight up. You can tie in both wings at the same time which is more difficult but uses less thread or each individually. For the other wing use the quills that were exactly opposite of the ones that you used for the first wing. This is very long winded but take your time and read through it slowly and look at the picture...It should look like this...

7. Now tie in a larger coachman brown hackle fiber 1/8 inch behind the wings. To do this select a coachman brown hackle fiber and trim the fuzz from the end of the feather. Lay the spine of the hackle feather against the side of the hook and secure with 4 to 5 thread wraps. It should look like this...

8. Spin your thread forward 1/8 inch from the eye of the hook. Using your hackle pliers grab the tip of the feather and spin it towards the eye of the hook. Tie the tip of the feather down with 4 to 5 thread wraps and trim off the tip of the hackle fiber and whip finish...