Foam Beetle (Leetle Beetle and a little extra)

For no particular reason I just keep tying small flies. But this summer I noticed that the biodiversity in my fly box was a little low. I did not know what species missed, till that summer evening. In the middle of a very low Semois river, I stalked across the river to a large over hanging Alder tree with a nice pool and beaver burrow below. Just missing the low branches, my sedge pattern kissed the water surface and was grabbed by a nice chub. The smart fish immediately took shelter under a large lump of water crowfoot. Walking up there -disturbing the pool- and releasing the fish was the only thing left to do. With my head in the branches, I suspected that more fly fishermen must have tried there luck in this spot and being not so lucky. So I inspected the branches for flies. And yes, I found a nice one....a beetle. It was nicely tied so I kept it as a souvenir. Later that evening at a campfire I spoke another fly fisher about catching Ide in the IJssel river. He recommended black beetles. With these signs, I had to do something with these terrestrials. So the beetles newly arrived on my fly tying bucket list.

In these dark wet days just before new years day I stayed indoors going through my FF&FT magazines. There it was in the august issue (2017): a nice article of Charles Jardin about a beetle pattern from Toby Merigan (Funky Fly Tying). A useful tie-trick was using a lenghtways cut foam cilinder as the back shield for the beetle. I had to try this.

The next step in designing a eclectic terrestrial was scanning my favourite Youtube and Vimeo channels for other cunning ideas:

• Fly tying nation (Foam Beetle)
• Tightline (Foam Beetle 2.0)
• Fly Fish Food (Leetle Beetle)
• Davy McPhail

The Leetle Beetle by Fly Fish Food was the most appealing pattern. Good triggers, not to complex and a nice design.So I tuned the chassis of that fly a little by (see picture below):

• the cut in half foam cylinder as a back  (had only brown left, and a black marker pen);
• adding a silver crystal bead at the bud to mimic an air bubble;
• Using spanflex for legs (had nothing else) and splitting the front pair to make 6 legs in total;
• Bending the legs a little using a hot needle.

Hopefully this terrestrial will work on Chub and Ide next year (only a few hours away).

Epic discovery: Great midge video's

Last sunday, I was paging through one of my favourite books: "Tailwater Flies" by Pat Dorsey. This was while enjoying a little break from painting the walls of my house. I persuaded my wife that painting walls is a typical project for the autumn months when dry fly fishing is in hibernation. So last sunday the moment was there that I delayed this projects as much as possible untill my wife had a zero tolerance moment...I HAD to paint (I happened to discover some nice tails in my paint brush).

This summer I tested some micro nymph "Tailwater Flies" patterns: Black Beauty, Mercury Midge and Top Secret Midge. All with (surprisingly) no soft hackles. My hopes were high, but the Dutch en Belgium fish were not interested in these U.S.A. midge nymphs.

Closing the book I grabbed the tablet and did a quick scan (I had 5 minutes left) on the trusted soft hackled nymphs. I was so thrilled discovering some awesome midge video's from Rog and Jane Klettke's Youtube channel. How could I have missed those earlier?

To be sure that you don't miss them: have a look at this one. And don't forget to check their other videos. This video is about the Tummel Fly. It has some similarity with the spider patterns like the William's Favourite and the Black cock. Enjoy!

Private Ryan (Mayfly spinner pattern)

This fly is my tribute to the allied forces of World War II. Please let me explain.

Spinners on Omaha beach, World War II

Special about the month May is –for us fly tyers- the mayfly. But in The Netherlands, this month is mostly associated with World War II. On May 4 the Dutch remember each year all (allied) people who fought and died during World War II and in wars in general. There are remembrance gatherings all over the country and two minutes of silence is observed at 8pm.

The day after, we celebrate (Liberation Day, May 5^th) our liberation by the Allied forces of the occupation by Nazi Germany and Japan. There are festivals all over the country and there are a lot of war films on tv like “Saving private Ryan”. It was during that film that I was puzzling out Mayfly spinner patterns for a fly fish weekend in the Semois river (Belgium Ardennes). Just as Tom Hanks landed on Omaha beach, I doodled a Mayfly spinner pattern made of a detached squirmy worm body with three pheasant tail fibres and Guinea fowl feather wing. Hence the name for this paratrooper fly “Private Ryan”. This fly must land some educated trout on a river beach I thought. The only issue is that Private Ryan was a man, and this spinner fly imitates a lady. A sort of “boy named Sue” reversed…

Semois twilight

“What fly are you using?”, asked one of the local fly fish Mastodons on the campsite. A bunch of beer drinking experienced fly fishers were probably amused about my rotten casting techniques when I was casting in front of the terrace. Then suddenly the fish showed interest as I changed a fly. It was the first year I tied flies. 

Old #14 spider pattern

The fly was a sort of white #14 spider with a Guinea fowl hackle. I was surprised and fascinated. Why would the fish take this fly? It was probably because it looked like a gnome version of a Mayfly spinner. So on my to do list was to design an easy to tie and floatable big spinner pattern (I try to bring as little floatant materials in the river as possible). While missing the wine and campfires, I observed the Semois water surface in the twilight. And discovered the Mayfly spinners. The Private Ryan is much bigger than my #14 spider, but think will do just fine. 

Hacking & forging a fly

This fly is inspired by the Deerstalker (Neil Patterson) and great spinner articles from masterminds like Peter Lapsley, Neil Patterson, John Goddard and Malcolm Greenhalgh in the Fly fishing and Fly tying magazine. And not to forget the spinner pattern of Leon Janssen in Wondervliegen 2. Larded with my field observations, I hacked the existing patterns and forged this fly. Trying to use modern materials and keeping the fly as simple as possible and not too plastic.

The tasty ingredients

• Hook: This is a detached body fly. So the hook has three functions: 1) hooking a prey, 2) a platform to connect body, thorax and wings and 3) minimize the weight to prevent it from sinking. I choose a shrimp hook size 14 as an ultimate compromise. 

•  Body (Total body lenght: 16-25 mm): I choose the squirmy worm because it floats, it's flexible, it's for this spinner the right diameter and it's easy to connect tails to (as I found out). I use white for the Ephemera Danica spinners and Earthworm brown for the Ephemera Vulgata spinners. Tan could be a good colour for duns. Cut approx 15-20 mm squirmy for the body. This makes - with the wing thorax of 5mm- a fly of total 20mm-25 mm in lenght.

• Wing (body size): I was looking for a soft wing, large enough for wings and colours that give contrast. I choose Guinea fowl feathers because thy seems to be highly UV reflective en have dark en white spots. But a Mallard breast feather also gives a great impression of the Mayfly wings. Tying trick: Be sure to select feathers with a thin shaft, so you can hackle them easily. 

• Thorax: I found out that the underside of the thorax of Danica spinners is white-ish. Hence I use I white-ish dubbing for the thorax area (Fly Rite #12 Cream). For the Vulgata, I use Peacock herl.

• Tails (20-45 mm): Long and brownish. Pheasant tail fibres are a fine choice. Tying trick: to make shure the 3 fibres spread and don't clog together: 

1.  After inserting in the squirmy, place them in the right angles and place a drop of superglue at the base. And or:
2. Like curling a ribbon for a present: scratch the fibres with your nails. This makes them curl to the right side. 

• Detached body: After some failures I found a very easy way to make durable detached bodies with great tails. The detached body made from squirmy worm with 3 tails is hopefully helpful for other fly tyers trying to make easy bodies. The only downside is that it is made of plastic (...) and is more “glue-ing then tying’. I think that the squirmy is also interesting for bodies of bigger dry insect patterns like Daddy long legs. 

Connecting all bits and pieces
In this short video I demonstrate how to tie this paratrooper. 

The pictures below show the most important tying steps:
 

Pull the 3 pheasant tail fibres through the squirmy body with a needle

4 bodies ready to tie on a hook

A size 14 shrimp hook with a squirmy body and guinea fowl feather attached

A hackled feather ready to tie into 2 flat wings

A few Private Ryan flies, fill your fly box quickly (shown are the E. Danica (white) & E. Vulgata (brown) versions)

My first fish taken on a Private Ryan! A nice Rudd.

Just add water & enjoy! This Rudd did enjoy it!

Bunny Bottom Zonker

The Bunny Bottom is the first experimental distillate made from an American bunny, some Danish flash and a lot of web research about how fish see and respond to colour. With perch or (sea)trout in mind, I forged a fly of 7 cm with flash on top and - as a novelty - a rabbit strip on the bottom instead of on top. Hence the name of Bunny Bottom. I like to share this forged fly with you in the hope that with some feedback, we can make better and happier flies!

Snorkelling through big data

This winter reading ceremony I halfway stopped the yearly read in the "Fly fishers Chronicle" (#wtf?) and started studying nymph/streamer visibility. Not by snorkelling (toooo cold) but by comparing underwater photographs from friends like Blikonderwater. But also the underwater video's bring the colour quest to a next level. For video's are Underwater-Ireland or Jack Perks one of my favourites. These photo's and video's gave me new insights (see conclusions) because some articles on the web conflict with each other or just are a summery of something else. 

Under water smoke screen

A new underwater perspective could perhaps improve some of my fly patterns. One of my learnings - and also a big disappointment- came from photographing underwater stuff with my Olympus TG860: The underwater horizontal visibility is a fraction of the visibility seen from above looking down (vertical)! Especially when a lot of particles or algae colour the water and cause a sort of smoke screen that limit visibility. So most of the fish can't even see the flies we throw at them. In one of my other posts you'll find an excellent article about this from Troutnut. In short: a fish takes food right in front of him only nearby, but takes food farther away if it is higher above the fish (closer to the surface, in the light, and is better visible).

Let's DE-camouflage our flies?

I learned that fly detection is a game of colour contrast (yes also UV, fluorescence etc), movement and flash (scent is not considered as an option for flies). Stand out in the crowd! Good casting skills stay paramount here besides all fly intelligence! Flash (reflection from sunshine) can be detected at a further distance than colour contrast can. So flash is on this menu. What most fisherman perhaps underestimate is that the obvious "fly detection" is an important first step before the well known GISS mantra (General Impression, Size & Shape). The fish must see/notice our fly before it can attack it. Obviously we must not scare our quarry in de-camouflaging our flies from there background to much! And sometimes a close copy of the real thing is still the best. 

"Fly fishing with the best fly colour is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it…"

Discovered by detected in the mirror 

Long ago, the sensory organs of the fish we are after, are developed in times when there were not as much polluted nutrients, silt etc in our waters. These organs were once brought to perfection in (mostly) crystal clear waters. Under those circumstances the reflective mirror like underside of our water surface plays a great roll in prey detection. I presume you are familiar with all the reflection theories and Snell's window, otherwise have a look at this video.   

 From below a prey can be seen twice: in the water AND on the reflective water surface. That's a bonus for the predators because looking at the water surface gives a much better and easier picture of what is happening than when looking through plants and woody debris. I discovered this in beautiful underwater photos and videos made in crystal clear waters with shoals of Rudd's. Their reflection also notable in the mirror of the water surface. A nice "mirror quiz" can be played in this link from Underwater-Ireland to understand what I mean (2nd photo).

My biggest paradigm shift about underwater camouflage came from these photo's and video's! The fish not only have a dark upside to camouflage them for detection from above (birds etc) BUT also (and perhaps mainly) to hide them for mirror detection from the water surface below! Now take a break & have a cup of coffee.

My other learnings:

1. Use the under water mirror of the water surface effectively in fly design!!
2. For better visibility, fish your fly as high as possible (the muddier the higher), but close enough for the fish to come and get it.
3. A fly higher in the water column is easier detected (colour or contrast): so if you fish on/near the bottom, a second fly higher on the line (dropper) can cause more attention.
4. Flash (if there is sunshine) will carry further than colour and is easily detected (Like a red fog lamp in the mist).
5. Sunlight comes from above, so to use flash effectively: bind it on the top half of the fly!
6. Most water is not as clear as we see it from above the water surface (from a vertical perspective), The underwater horizontal visibility is a fraction of the vertical visibility. Turbidity and diminishing light intensity play a great roll in how far and intense colours are seen under water. 
7. Fluorescent colours are strong contrast to the background. Just as flash, bind it on the top half of the fly!
8. White - such as a wounded fish or white koi carp- contrasts really well.
9. There is enough to read about how colours change under water so I skip that chapter here. 

So back to the Bunny Bottom

Inspiring tying video's for small zonker streamers (seatrout):

• Goby seatrout fly 
• Zonker baitfish 
• The burner

Best fly fishing tent

Going through old photo's of epic fly fish weekends, I discovered that most weekends have one thing in common. My Helsport Varanger Lavvu Tent (we call it tipi). It's a great indispensable asset! A great side effect is that it can vertically store complete fishing rods. We have the 12 person version for 4 persons. This helps to not eat anyone while being held to long in a tent during a rainy day... It's a great tent, pitched in less than 15 minutes. An extra tarp is handy!

Squirmy spinner

I wanted to do this for a long time....and here are the first experiments: the squirmy spinner! The idea unsprung after a long midwinter read about mayfly's......and my previous summer evening frustration: a wrong rise/hook-up ratio.

It's a design for a mayfly (E. Danica) spinner. In short: This new fly concept is a synthetic version based a bit on a Deerstalker, with a little hook and a floating detached body. As shown in my previous posts about the "Squirmy Klinkhammer", squirmy floats. So this material prevents putting polluting (?) floating stuff on the fly. The hook shanks only purpose is to connect all the bits on the thorax.

Here my first few photo's. More later. If you like more specific  information, let me know. My doodling is the prelude for a sort of infographic. I think that a infographic could be a nice form to
share thoughts about a fly....