Casual Dress - A Variation on a Theme

Flies made from natural animal hair are a favorite of mine. Which means Polly Rosborough's "Casual Dress," ranks high on the list.

Very high. If you are unaware of Polly Rosborough, well... we can fix that. You can learn about him, here: Polly Rosborough - A Life Well Lived If you are unaware of his pattern, the "Casual Dress," well... lets say that's too bad. It is one of the best patterns I have in my box. So you should get to know the Casual Dress. Why does it rate so high? Well, it is tough, it is adaptable, and it works wonders on the panfish in my local waters. If we were to categorize the Casual Dress, we would call it a nymph, and nymphs are excellent fish catching flies. Perhaps the single best type for trout and panfish. So there's that.

But going beyond, Rosborough further defined it as a, "fuzzy nymph." This is because the fly is crafted primarily from animal fur; the originals used muskrat and ostrich herl. The sparse materials list alone should earn this pattern some points. There is, in fact, an entire range of these fur-tied nymph patterns designed by Polly Rosborough, and even a book titled, appropriately enough, "Tying and Fishing The Fuzzy Nymphs." Don't think that because these nymphs only take two materials that they can be thrown together any old way. In fact, Polly was quite specific about how they were to be tied, from the way the muskrat fur was worked, down to the ostrich herl at the head. He even insisted you use an old hacksaw blade to scruff up the bodies once complete! But, while the pattern TYING PROCEDURE is well-defined, it is also adaptable. The idea is to tie a fly that represents something a fish would want to eat... that was what Polly Rosborough was shooting for. To do that, you can use a variety of material types that fit into the pattern style. That's the beauty of the thing, and that's what I've done here. The pattern has been tied in the proscribed manner, but with variations on the theme.

The Original Idea courtesy of John Teft

The Variation

I'm not going to detail the tying of this fly - there are a lot of instructions for that on the internet, or in the books. Here is just one of many: How To Tie The Casual Dress However, fly tyers tend to wander off track when at the vise. They like to add changes, or use materials that differ from the pattern. It is adaptation, more than disrespect. One guy referred to it as "riffing," and I like the sound of that. In this case, I stuck with the usual plan for the tail, body, and collar. But I "riffed" down a wide fork in the road after that.

1. The fur in this particular variation is mink, not muskrat. This gives it a fine, fluffy look. What is wanted is a hair that's not overly coarse, and which possesses a good bit of underfur. I tried it with fur from a fox tail once, and it made a very rough, ragged looking fly. Not normally what I am after, but in larger sizes, I'm sure it would work quite well.

2. The tail is the guard hair from the chosen pelt, with some of the underfur left in. It's tied about shank length.

3. The dubbed body is that portion of the underfur taken from the tail, with a little flash dubbing mixed in. It is dubbed tightly onto the thread, then the noodle is wound onto the hook.

4. The hair collar is done using the split thread technique, and also spun very tightly. The hair is stroked back as it is wound on. On this one it almost disappears.

5. The pattern calls for ostrich herl at the front, but I snagged a small pheasant feather for this and left the ostrich herl off.

It gives a buggy, leggy, variegated look.

I tied this one after being away from the vise for awhile - week's, I think. I'm never sure what'll happen after such a hiatus...

Will I muck it up?

Tie down my fingers?

Jab myself with hook or bodkin?

Happily, none of these happened with this effort. My riffing doesn't look too bad, either. Try this pattern, as a variation. Use whatever soft animal fur you might have available, and tie up a few of these. Then fish them. You'll find them to be just what I say: a top notch fish catcher. And a fine variation on a theme. Thanks for reading Tight Lines David Palmetto Fly n Fish © all rights reserved Visit us at by following this link: Palmetto Fly N Fish