Beetle Time!

[Fishidiot]

I love fishing terrestrials. While I find that a foam beetle gets trout all year, obviously, summer is prime time. This morning I hit 3 surface feeding browns on a beetle. Anytime I see fish laid up or rising near rose bushes I usually reach for a beetle. In 2006 we had a bumper crop of the Japanese beetles throughout PA - although horticulturists were mortified, it made for some great fishing. It will be interesting to see whether the beetle fishing this year will be merely very good as usual, or whether it will be fantastic. Have fun tying Green Drakes for upstate - I think I'll tie some more beetles this weekend.

 

[PaulG]

Fishidiot

I to love fishing terrestial, although I prefer Crowe Beetles, they both do well. I haven't fished them much so far this year, it's time. I did try one on Spring last week but only for a short time, then the sulpher started.

Sunday Im meeting paflyfisherman at Clarks and plan on giving them a try, Clarks is a great terrestrial stream!

Thank for the post!

PaulG

 

[wetnet]

I haven't had a ton of sucess with beetles, but allot of fun learning how to use them. It's the one bug you get to slap on the water. They are effective, I've seen people who knew how to fish them, reap the benefits. One more thing that I need to work on.

 

[jayL]

I got a few on the WMD recently... so yeah, terrestrial time is here on your local wooded streams!

Though I had more fun getting those feisty wild browns to smack a skittered stimulator.

 

[dryflyguy]

I caught a few on beetles this past week on the little j - during the afternoon, when there wasn't much hatching going on.
That crowe beetle is amazing - it's one of the first flies I learned how to tie, and it's so simple!

 

[Maurice]

Wetnet, if you can cast it it works. They are the wooly bugger of the dry fly.

 

[wetnet]

When I saw beetles fished with they didn't cast them in a typical manner. They fished them the same way you'd want to sink a nymph fast. Over and down fast. In skinny water they did a knee crawl. About the casting. I was picking the tops off of dandelions today early AM practicing. Went fishing and left spagetti on the water. I was fishing double weighted nymphs. Anyone know how to get some distance on them. Caught a tree the first 60 seconds. Lost both nymphs. Lost another full set a couple minutes after. About cried. OK maybe one or two tears. I'll be back at it tomorrow. I have a half cold, it's not fun and making me more tired than usual.

 

[Maurice]

Well as I said, you can't fish a beetle wrong. In the low clear glides and slow pools of summer on cool streams trout hang by the banks and alls ys gutta do is git it there.

I remember fishing the Letort at the Letort park..the one where the derby was. I went there to check out how horrendous the stocking of this hallowed water was. Well it was a couple piles of fish in the middle of the area that they feed the ducks. Hardly a crime.

Anyway, as I explored upstream, there is a point bar, sort of a peninsula that is kinda through a wooded area that I found interesting, I saw a fish rise about 45-50 ft away under a willow and had about a 20 back cast. I tried about three or four times to reach him without getting my back cast caught but couldn;t reach him. ON the fifth or so try, I tried shooting a little more line and probably made the cast around 40ft. That thing hit the water and this trout cut water toward the bug and smashed it. It must have moved 10 ft to get it. When I picked up and he felt metal he jumped sky high. I think I remember chanting something like...Oh yeah...you think you can hang outside my range you little sonofagun. I was pumped. I brought hium in, a beautiful 14" Letort brown.

The moral of the story is the cast wasn't pretty but the presentation didn;t need to be because it was a crowe beetle.

Or I was lucky, either way, It was the bomb!


Regarding the heavy nymhs, as with slinging any lead in line or terminal, open loops are needed and minimal false casts are mandatory or you will be taking them out of your ear.

the bottom line is if you aint casting for Joan wulff you only need to mak the necessary false casts to get the fly where it needs to go. Usually this means, with nymphing anyway, allowing the drift to load the rod at the end of the drift and lift slowly until the weight is near the surface and before you lose the load and punching it upstream with the rod tip ending in a spanial point toward the target. Its as simple as that.

They don't call it chuck and duck for nuthin.

 

[Brownout]

That was a nice short story there Maurice; got some laughs out of it too.

So when does the short story section of the forum open up? ;-)

 

[afishinado]

Wetnet,

You're a nympher at heart - try this. I tie what I call an indicator beetle. It's a good sized (12 or 14) foam beetle with a decent amount of chart. or orange poly yarn folded back on top of the fly. It looks a lot like Fishidiot's foam beetle fly, but instead of colored foam I use poly yarn tied on top. The yarn is a great indicator and helps to keep the fly right-side up when it lands, sort of like a parachute fly. Anyway, tie a dropper with a nymph or two on to it (from the eye or the bend) and dead drift it through the run. It works great for shallow to medium depth nymphing, and will hold up fairly heavy nymphs or multiple shot. It is my rig for the lower flows of summer and covers the water top to bottom. They often hammer the beetle as much or more than the nymphs. Good luck.

 

[Fishidiot]

As usual, good advice from afishinado.

The way I discovered that trout take beetles year round is a result of this tactic. They make a great strike indicator/float for midges. It seems that the shape or profile of these insects really seems to "imprint" on trout and they react to it with predatory instinct even months after terrestrial insects largely disappear from the water. Anyway, try dropping a nymph, emerger, or midge pupae under a visible beetle dry fly...it's a killer.

Some years ago, probably sometime in the mid 1980s, Art Lee had an article in Fly Fisherman Mag I think titled "Anting the Hatch" in which he suggested using ants for selective fish during hatches of aquatics. Beetles work here too, esp if they're fairly small. Many times when I can't feed a riser during a hatch of mayflies/caddisflies (or esp midges) I'll throw a small beetle at 'em with good results.

 

[Padraic]

Maurice's story makes me think of a trick that Marinaro gives in Ring of the Rise. Drop the beetle behind the trout. Very often it will turn to hit it, and if it does it is far more likely to take the fly.

The terrestrial "plop" is a great presentation for a beetle. As wetnet states it's very much like the tuck cast for nymphing. I don't think it's as strong a snap back on the forward cast though.

I've found too that the stiller the water then smaller the beetle and lighter the presentation should be. In riffles, trout will listen for and readily take a big beetle smashed on the water. In still water, trout seem to be more cautious. I did better with a softer presentation of a small beetle. In fact, washing the dressing off the beetle and letting it sink a few inches can be really effective. Many times I've seen trout on Clarks or the Breeches would will take flies just under the surface that shy away from dries.

But that's all stuff that worked for me... others may disagree heartily!

 

[afishinado]

Padraic wrote:
Maurice's story makes me think of a trick that Marinaro gives in Ring of the Rise. Drop the beetle behind the trout. Very often it will turn to hit it, and if it does it is far more likely to take the fly.

The terrestrial "plop" is a great presentation for a beetle. As wetnet states it's very much like the tuck cast for nymphing. I don't think it's as strong a snap back on the forward cast though.

I've found too that the stiller the water then smaller the beetle and lighter the presentation should be. In riffles, trout will listen for and readily take a big beetle smashed on the water. In still water, trout seem to be more cautious. I did better with a softer presentation of a small beetle. In fact, washing the dressing off the beetle and letting it sink a few inches can be really effective. Many times I've seen trout on Clarks or the Breeches would will take flies just under the surface that shy away from dries.

But that's all stuff that worked for me... others may disagree heartily!

When I started fly fishing, I discovered this by accident since I was neither accurate nor delicate with my casts. It works!!!

Smack down a popper anywhere near a smallie and see what happens too!!

Also, I agree with Pad as in clear low water a small fly presented delicately usually works best. A small McMurray ant or foam or dubbed ant equivalent has just the right amount of plop to excite trout in thin water. Gulp!!.....great fun!

 

[Acristickid]

I am sure the old salts of fly fishing know these flies and techniques well. This method of fly fishing should never be underestimated.

Steve at FFP gave me some great advice once a couple of summers ago. He told me to fish a Letort cricket (the all black ones)- looking for the silhouette of the bug. Said cast under overhanging branches and bushes in the evening. DEADLY. The strikes were all vicious. What fun for a couple of hours one night.

http://www.danica.com/flytier/eshenk/letort_cricket.htm

Some fly guys I know have taken their largest trout on terrestrials in the middle of a summer day.

Ants,beetles,crickets, and hoppers are in the box till November now.

 

[pete41]

fishing and left spagetti on the water. I was fishing double weighted nymphs. How to cast"

Wet Nymph[Wetnet-freudian slip-lol]
Get Charles Brooks book on nymph fishing-forgot the title-
The nymphs he used on the Madison river were some of the heaviest and most effective large trout nymphs ever.I personally did not like that type of fishing but it is deadly-as Maurice pointed out-its more slinging than casting.

 

[pete41]

'Some fly guys I know have taken their largest trout on terrestrials in the middle of a summer day'

Eastern trout anyway
on the letort-
nothing more exciting in all of fishing-[repeat all] than having a four or five pounder slash across the top of the weeds to nail a hopper
thousands of fish later that's my big un in the attic.

In the East and smaller streams in the West[limestoners] and ponds-I always had some cinnamon colored Letort ants in 22

On the Letort probably the one best terr. but it would usually get some rises anytime the trout were hitting little stuf fon any river I ever dry flied East and West.
Sorta like a backup lighter for smokers-lol
Paul[in a whisper] all black hoppers are called crickets
Letort cricket worked great on small Western streams.

 

[Acristickid]

pete41- I hear you loud and clear. hehe

 

[Padraic]

"Steve at FFP gave me some great advice once a couple of summers ago. He told me to fish a Letort cricket (the all black ones)- looking for the silhouette of the bug. Said cast under overhanging branches and bushes in the evening. DEADLY. The strikes were all vicious. What fun for a couple of hours one night."

He even has a special cast for shooting line way, way under those overhanging branches. If anyone is headed up to Spring Creek, stop in and ask him to show it to you. It really needs to be demonstrated.

Any fly cast well under overhanging limbs seems extra effective. I think the trout get over-confident.

 

[ErnieBall]

She loves you , yeah yeah yeah




someone had to do it

 

[pete41]

Beatles?