DRY FLIES
FOAM BEETLE
Beetles are of the order
Coleoptera and there are over 28,000 species found in Australia.
TERRESTRIAL
BEETLES
Many different types
of
beetles are fond in the vegetation throughout Australia. There are
those
that live in forests, other that live in pastures and yet others
peculiar
to tussock ridden high country grasslands. Sizes and colour vary
significantly
as do the patterns that represent them. Because Beetles are blown onto
the water rather than intending to be there it is common to find a
number
of different types of Beetles on the trouts “shopping list” at the one
time.
Some
of the
more
commonly
encountered beetles include the Fiery Brown, various Gum beetles and
even
Ladybird beetles.
AQUATIC
BEETLES
A small number of
beetles
spend either part or all of their laval and or adult stages as aquatic
or semi aquatic insects. These "aquatic beetles" are also targeted by
trout
or other fish from time to time.
Having
said
that fly
fishers
have generally not focused on tying any specific flies to represent
either
the lava or adult of individual species of these aquatic beetles.
This is probably because other than by detailed autopsy it is difficult
to identify if a beetle found in a trouts stomach was taken as a
floating
or wet terrestrial or was in fact an aquatic beetle and at the nymphal
stage
they are difficult to distinguish from nymphs of other insects.
Because
this
identification
is so difficult for the fly fisherman (and hopefully the trout) it is
assumed
that trout feeding on lava of aquatic beetles will accept nymphs of
other
insects and trout feeding on adult aquatic beetles will accept a
drowned
beetle representation or in the case of diver beetles a Corixidea
representation.
FISHING
TECHNIQUE
Both floating and
wet
Beetles (including drowned Terrestrials beetles and Aquatic
beetles) should be fished in the current with as little line drag as
possible or
with a very short twitching action. A nondescript well tied beetle
pattern
if presented in the right way when fish have beetles on their menu,
more
often than not, will be accepted by fish. Consequently no fly box would
be complete without a selection of beetle patterns. Good
representations
include: RED TAG, GEEHI BEETLE, HUMPY, COCK-Y-BONDDU and FOAM BEETLE
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Slightly plumper versions tied
with visual indicators for use as
indicators under which you
can fish a nymph or two. |
COMMON NAMES
SIZE
DRESSING:
FIERY
BROWN #12
Red/brown
body, brown wing casing & brown legs.
GEEHI BEETLE #12
Peacock
herl body, brown wing case & yellow legs.
TEA TREE BEETLE #12
Black
body, brown wing casing & brown legs.
LADYBIRD
BEETLE #14
Black
body, red wing casing & black legs.
MATERIALS:
Hook
- Size 10 to 16 dry fly
"Tail" - Rabbit fur, marabou or filoplume
Body - Estaz chenille,
chenille, wool, herl rope, dubbing etc.
Wing casing - closed
cell
foam
Legs - Hackle or silicon legs
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A)
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Wind a heavier than normal thread in touching turns
to the
bend of the hook.
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Tie in a tail like feature extending behind the hook
about
2/3 the length of the hook shank. This isn't really a tail. The tail
like feature on my beetles is tied in to imitate the beetle wing parts
that
often trail behind the beetle like a tail when it gets trapped in the
water mid flight.
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Return the thread to 75% of the way along the hook
shank
toward the eye of the hook.
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B)
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Tie in closed cell form forming an underbody and
leaving
enough foam
extending beyond the bend of the hook to pull over to form the beetle
back.
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Tie in your body material at the bend of the
hook.
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C)
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Wind the body material over the underbody toward the
eye
of the hook with firm touching turns.
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Tie the body material off and trim the excess body
material at the same position that the underbody ends.
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At this stage you can add
hackle
legs.
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4. Pull the closed cell foam
into position over the top of
the fly.
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D)
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Hold the closed cell foam in position onto the top
of the
hook shank at the tie down point with the fingers of your left hand.
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With your right hand take a couple of tight wraps of
thread.
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Without releasing pressure on the thread place a
couple of
double
hitches over the eye of the hook.
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E)
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Trim the tag end of the foam just behind the eye of
the
hook.
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Trim the thread and paint eyes on if you like.
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If I haven't tied in hackle legs on all but the
smallest
beetles I like to add silicon legs. This can be
done very easily by just threading the silicon onto a darning needle
and passing the needle through the underbody and then pulling through
and trimming the legs to size.
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