Written by Mike Gentry
 

Those of us who were at a previous TVTU chapter meeting were treated to a real education on the "forgotten flies" - the oddballs beyond the traditional caddies, stonefly and mayfly hatches that make up some, but far from all, of a trout's diet.  Soapbox time - Where were you?  These chapter meetings and the fishing and work outings of the chapter are both entertaining and educational and a great place to share common interests.  I strongly encourage you to come to a meeting or outing - you'll find it well worth the time as a fisherman and conservationist.

But back to the topic at hand.  I was reminded at the meetings that terrestrials often make up a significant food source for our finny friends.  That is particularly true of beetles because of their abundance and wide dispersion. Trout in still water and in rivers often will take a terrestrial since unlike a "hatch" the but is usually around and often falls into the water through a wind gust, a bad flight pattern or other reasons.  So I scrapped the pattern I was going to feature and decided to present a simple beetle pattern instead.

Hook:        Tiemco 100BL, sizes 12-16
Thread:     8/0 unithread (or your favorite), color to match body
Underbody:  Peacock Herl
Body:  2mm closed cell foam, black or brown
Legs:  black or brown small rubberlegs
Post (if desired):  1 or 2mm foam, bring color

1. Tie in an underbody by winding peacock herl from the bend of the hook to just short of the eye.

2. Cut an oval body from the foam so that the body is a bit thinner than an egg and is just a tad longer than the length of the hook.

3.  Position the thread so it is a bit behind the front of the herl underbody - about 1/4 of the way back toward the hook bend.

4.  Position the beetle body so that the back is even with the back of the hook bend and the front sticks a little bit forward of the eye.

5.  Pinching the body foam with finger and thumb of the left hand (assuming you are a right-handed tier) at the back of the beetle, "fold" it down over the hook from above and around the underbody, and wrap the body fairly tightly (so it will not turn on the hook) at that point with three turns of thread.

6. Take about three inches of rubber legs (to give you extra length to work with) and position on one side of the beetle body (I usually start with the side away from me but it does not matter) so that it is horizontal and up against the side of the beetle body, with about half its length sticking out in either direction from the tie point.

7. Loosely wrap two thread turns over the leg and slowly increase the thread pressure to draw the rubber legs piece in against the body where you have tied the body to the hook.  The idea is to bring the legs flayed out and the tie point taut to the body, so that the legs stick out and hold in place fairly parallel to the plane of the water.  Once the thread is taut, you can move the ends of the legs up or down to get the right position by pushing up or down on the tie point.  Repeat on the other leg.

8.  If desired (I like it), take a small rectangle of some really visible foam (I like yellow or bright green) and tie it in on top of the beetle body by two wraps of thread.

9.  To finish the fly, bend the "head" of the beetle up and back with your fingers so that you can wrap the thread underneath the head and on the little bit of underbody ahead of the tie point, and make one turn through the underbody to get the thread in front of the underbody and at the back point of the eye, and tie off by several half hitches and cut.  Put a drop of head cement on the thread. 

10.  Clip the legs to length - I use them a little shorter than the body length. 

There is no secret to fishing the beetle.  I usually work it around the shore of the river, stream or lake since the wind or a flight pattern usually puts the hapless creature in the water fairly close to the bank.  As there isn't a narrow season to the beetle life cycle, as far as I know, I have tried them from early spring to late fall, particularly when no traditional hatch seems to be going on or producing.  If there is a bit of wind, that seems to increase the odds since wind traditionally does put more terrestrials in the water.  This is a good pattern to have in your arsenal.