I was I fly tying instructor holding weekly classes from 1987 to 2001, in that time literally hundreds of fly tiers sat in on my classes and work shops over the years. I still teach those who want to learn, but no longer have the time to hold organized classes. Any way, I always liked using the Fan Wing Royal Coachman as a "fight or flight" pattern for new students. It can be tough to tie for a new comer, but not so difficult it can't be mastered in less then an hour.

So my question is, has anyone every really........REALLY, in living memory, ACTUALLY caught a fish on a Royal Coachman....EVER. I've just never seen it done. I'm sure it's happened somewhere, some time.....but have you

Oh yes, I have caught a few on drys, but I would not be without the wet fly version - it is one of my top producers here in western Mass.

Back in the 60's when I was learning to tie, I caught a number of fish on the old dry fan wing. I haven't fished one in years, but I bet it will still work in the right situation.

I have a small lake nearby where I was catching smallmouth, perch, and even a slab crappie on royal coachman streamers. It's a weird place.

Way back when I was a kid, maybe 6 years old I had a small pocket sized book on fishing given to me by my brother. For most of my youth that little book was the only source for fishing (and fly fishing) instruction I had. The Royal Coachman was one of the 5 or 6 flies pictured in the book and was there for one of the first flies I learned to tie. To be honest when I tie flies for me I'm a bit lazy and just want them as quick and simple as possible......something the coachman isn't. It's a great teaching tool, but at least for me, for where I fish....I've never had so much as a rise on one. But that being said it's an old pattern that has stood the test of time, and for that alone deserves some level of reverence. I'm just curious when, and where it's useful I guess.

Yes, I've caught quite a few bass and bluegill in moving water on these. Not fancy ones, ones that came out of some old fly box that ended up in my collection. I've tied a bucktail streamer in a royal coachman that has done well for trout the time I used it.

Never. But I've read a few anecdotes indicating that brookies find it hard to resist. After reading these posts, I'm going to try it on gills and smallies. Somehow, that makes more sense to me than offering it to trout.

The standard version has become a go to for me for alpine lakes. I’ll admit that I don’t like tying them though.

Last time I fished the RC, wet fly version, was on a small Blue Mountains, Oregon lake in the evening. I stopped fishing because the fly was shredded & because it was too dark to tie on another.

This is a fly I am never without. I use the Wulff version dry fly. I tie it with a single upright calftail wing and a sparse tail of splayed calftail fibers. It floats beautifully through pocket water, its white wing is easily visible, and it catches fish. For years it was the only dry fly i fished on Esopus Creek in NY.

I tied one on a steelhead hook years ago and caught a landlocked salmon on it - retired the fly immediately on principle!

A Royal Coachman swop?

When you fish a big Royal Wulff or a Hopper as a bobber for a trailing #22 Zebra Midge or some other such typical tailwater fly, in my experience, you always catch the most fish on the Zebra Midge. And not by a little. But by the end of the day you do catch one or two extra fish on the bobber fly. And they are almost always the two biggest fish of the day.

That's happened to me too many times to estimate, let alone count.

Caught my first of many on one. It is one of my go to patterns for small streams.