Overview

Rim Chung's RS2 is one of the few flies that genuinely deserves the word iconic, and no tailwater box should be without one. The initials stand for Rim's Semblance, and the 2 marks it as the successor to his original RS-1. It was built to beat some of the most heavily educated trout in the West, on water like the South Platte and the Dream Stream where fish have seen everything and refuse most of it.

What makes it work is restraint. The RS2 is barely more than a slim body, a sparse tail and a wisp of wing material, and that sparseness is exactly what sells it as a baetis emerger hanging in or just under the film. Overdressed emergers look like something; this one looks like almost nothing, which is what a real one looks like from below. The black dressing gives the darkest, highest-contrast silhouette of the family, which is the one to reach for in flat light or against a bright surface. Fish it in the film on a greased leader, as a dropper behind a dry, or as the top fly on a nymph rig. Tied here in size 24.Read More +