What an odd fly. Doesn’t appear to imitate anything, at least nothing I’ve observed. Legend has it that one Taylor Williams of Sun Valley, Idaho created the Renegade in 1937: the legend maker is none other than Ernest Hemingway. Regardless of who originated the fly; they produced a remarkable pattern, all the more remarkable because, well, what the hell is it? The design must have had an inspiration of, oh, I don’t know, an alien life form exploring our habitable waters? If there is an insect even close in resemblance to the Renegade, few if any have ever seen it, let alone classified it. Some flyfishers of Idaho claim it works well during caddis fly emergence; but why? Caddis emergence (more on that later) is a bit of an oxymoron itself; if what I know about caddis says anything. I have no explanation: does the Renegade simply look “buggy”? Not a bug I know of. The only other good explanation is the fly resemblance to the famous bi-visibles, often fished in cross currents. Few would suggest that the bi-visible is a good imitation of the routine hatch of some genus of . . of . . . well, I just don’t know!
Well, really, what does that mean. And how does such a pattern end up such a popular trout fly? Just one way to explain that. It works.
As what will be discussed later, dry flies for trout can be imitations or attractors; fancy flies in the historical term. Some fancy flies have a certain structure suggesting aquatic or terrestrial insects trout encounter, think the Coachman. But the Renegade? It is a true attractor pattern, and deadly beyond its simple construction. Peacock herl has always been a material with properties that make it appeal to trout; and the Renegade certainly features a full body of peacock herl framed with brown and white. One might presume the Coachman would serve as well. If trout are responding to the Renegade, certainly the Coachman would perform as well or better. What of the Elk Hair Caddis; if the high floating, dancing Renegade is attracting fish during a “hatch” of caddis, wouldn’t you simply identify the fly and switch to the appropriately colored EHC? Well, no. The Renegade will take fish when those patterns need to stay in the box. Humpies? Wulffs? Go ahead and try them, but desperate times call for desperate measures, or put more directly, fish the Renegade!
Idaho cutthroat seem most taken with the fly, and indeed, it earns its reputation on big streams like the South Fork of the Snake. Alaska grayling have a particular affinity for the Renegade, and my experience with grayling is that they are rather particular, I would never say selective, and have a remarkably unusual behavior in rejecting a fly at the last possible instant. But the Westslope Cutt is connected to the Renegade. For whatever reason, the Renegade can turn an average day into a memorable one.
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