Coachman
A peacock herl body, a natural red hackle and a pair of white wings — nearly two centuries old, named for a royal coachman, and still the fly to reach for when the light has gone. The white wing is not decoration: it is the only part of a small dry fly you can still track across a pool at dusk, and a fly you cannot see is a fly you cannot fish.
The last half-hour of light and after dark, when sedges are about and you have stopped being able to follow anything duller. Also a reliable moth suggestion on a warm summer night.
Peacock herl glows in low light in a way few materials do, and the white wing solves the practical problem the hour creates. It suggests a sedge or a moth without imitating either, which is enough when the fish are working on silhouette rather than detail.
