This version of the Woodruff is tied by Matt O’Neal of Savage Flies, (on YouTube / and Instagram ) who brings new attention to a historic Catskill pattern with roots stretching back over a century. The fly was originally created by Chester Mills of the renowned William Mills and Son Tackle Co. of New York City and named after Johnny Woodruff, who was the first to fish the pattern successfully on the upper Beaverkill.
According to the story, Mills handed Woodruff a few samples of the fly and asked him to test them on his next outing. As a member of the Brooklyn Fly Fishers Club, which held private access to a stretch of the Beaverkill, Woodruff was in the perfect position to give it a go. In 1920, he did just that.
At first, his fellow club members weren’t impressed. The fly didn’t look like much. But then an evening hatch rolled in, and while everyone else got skunked, Johnny pulled in a basketful of trout. As Harold Smedley recounted in Fly Patterns and Their Origins (1944):
"The rise proved disappointing to everyone but Johnny, who took a basketful of handsome fish..."
Mike Valla, in Tying the Founding Flies, later credited this moment as the naming origin of the now-classic Catskill fly.
It’s a humble pattern with a great backstory—the kind of fly that reminds you that performance on the water is what really counts.
Materials
- Hook: #12-16 dry fly
- Thread: Tan
- Wing: Grizzly hackle tips
- Tail: Grizzly hackle fibers
- Body: Rabbit blend, ~90% olive brown, 10% yellow
- Hackle: Brown
