Rough-Bodied Poult

This dressing substitutes a quail undercovert for the particular hackle Harfield Edmonds and Norman Lee suggest.

Hook:		14-18
Thread:		Primrose Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk
Body:		Tying silk dubbed lightly with buff opossum
Hackle:		Dun bobwhite quail undercovert
		In Brook and River Trouting (1916), Harfield Edmonds and Norman Lee give the dressing for the Rough-Bodied Poult as No 20, to imitate Ephemeridæ hatching from July through September. The name "poult" derives originally from the word "pullet," but the Oxford English Dictionary notes that, while it often referred to young, domesticated fowl and game birds, it was most often used in reference to the grouse. As is often the case with traditional soft-hackles, the name of the Rough-Bodied Poult indicates the most prominent part of the fly, the grouse undercovert hackle. Edmonds and Lee dress the fly with their usual specificity: “WINGS.—Hackled with a light blue feather from the under coverts of a young Grouse wing, taken before the bird is strong on the wing. (The lighter side of the feather towards the head of the fly.) This feather darkens very rapidly on the live bird from August onwards. BODY.—Straw coloured silk, No. 2, dubbed sparingly with buff fur from the flank of an Opossum. HEAD.—Straw-coloured silk.”