The Rainbow Warrior

🌈 The Rainbow Warrior: A Fly With No Business Working… Yet It Does
You know how some flies just look like they shouldn’t fool anything with fins? The Rainbow Warrior is the poster child for that category. It’s loud, flashy, borderline gaudy—like someone spilled a craft drawer into a vice and said, “Aye, that’ll do.”
And yet… trout absolutely hammer it.
I’ve always thought of the Rainbow Warrior as the fly that breaks all the rules. Traditionalists raise an eyebrow at it. Purists mutter something about “impressionistic patterns” and “matching the hatch.” Meanwhile, the Warrior just keeps catching fish, quietly proving that trout don’t read the same books we do.
🎣 Why It Works (Even Though It Shouldn’t)
The magic of the Rainbow Warrior isn’t in imitating anything specific. It’s more like a wee underwater beacon—something that says, “Oi, over here!” to any curious rainbow trout cruising the current.
• The pearl tinsel body throws light in every direction
• The red thread hotspot adds a wee trigger point
• The wapsi dubbing gives it that “alive but not quite identifiable” shimmer
It’s not a mayfly. It’s not a midge. It’s not a caddis. It’s… well, it’s a Warrior.
🌊 Where It Shines
If you’ve ever fished a river where the water has just a touch of colour—maybe after a bit of rain, or when the sun is low and the glare is bouncing off the surface—the Rainbow Warrior suddenly becomes the fly you reach for without thinking.

Video at the end of the piece

It’s brilliant as:
• A point fly on a Euro-nymphing rig
• A dropper under a dry
• A searching pattern when you’ve no idea what the trout are on
It’s the kind of fly you tie on when you’re feeling a bit cheeky, or when the day’s been slow and you need something to stir the pot.
🧵 Tying It: A Quick Chat at the Vice
If you’ve ever tied one, you know it’s almost disappointingly simple. A few wraps of tinsel, a pinch of dubbing, bead, thread, done. It’s the sort of pattern you can knock out by the dozen while listening to the rain on the window and thinking about the next trip.
And because it’s so quick to tie, you don’t mind losing a few to snags, rocks, or the occasional greedy trout that decides to bury itself under a log.
🐟 The Trout’s Perspective
I sometimes imagine a rainbow trout looking at a Rainbow Warrior and thinking:

Video: scroll down 

“I’ve no idea what that is… but I’m eating it.”
And honestly, that’s the charm. It’s a fly that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: a bright, flashy, unapologetic attractor that just works.
🌈 Final Thought
The Rainbow Warrior is a reminder that fly fishing doesn’t always have to be serious or scientific. Sometimes, a bit of colour and confidence is all you need. It’s a fly that invites you to experiment, to play, to trust your instincts—and to enjoy those moments when a trout proves you right.