The Riffle King and Riffle Queen are two original wet fly patterns I designed in July. I created them for my brother who went to Montana on a fishing trip. Like the Silver Drake, neither is a fancy wet fly but rather, they were created to be fished. I drew inspiration from the Holberton wet fly for the body design. That fly has peacock herl on the front half of the body.
I used peacock herl for the front ½ of the body and tinsel for the rear 1/2 on both of these patterns. Neither of them is complex or hard to tie. The Riffle King has an abdomen of silver tinsel and the Riffle Queen has gold tinsel on the rear ½ of the body. Both have design similarities and also some differences.
These flies and the Silver Drake were originally posted on the classicflytying forum. Sorry I have no macro photos but I was in a hurry to get these flies in the mail.
The recipes are:
Riffle King
Thread: Black Danville Flymaster 6/0
Hook: Standard wet fly hook, #6 t0 #10
Tag: None
Tail: Guinea fowl wing quill sections
Ribbing: None
Body: Rear ½ silver tinsel, front ½ peacock herl
Hackle: Brown partridge, wound as a collar
Wing: Dark brown
Head: Black
Riffle Queen
Thread: Black Danville Flymaster 6/0
Hook: Standard wet flt hook, sizes #6 – #10
Tip: None
Tail: Red hackle fibers
Ribbing: None
Body: Rear ½ gold tinsel, front ½ peacock herl
Hackle: Speckled brown hen (back), wound as a collar
Wing: Slate
Head: Black
Riffle King (left) and Riffle Queen on the right
Don Bastian Wet Flies 