Lightning Bug (soft hackled nymph)

[Old Hat]

I hated to do it, but it was time to tie some heavier flies. I found this pattern on the web and adjusted it for a soft hackled fly. Sometimes all it takes is a little bling.

Hook: Mustad R50 #14
Thread: orange griffith's 14/0
Head: brass bead, gold
Tail: pheasant tail fibers dyed brown
Rib: copper wire
Body: holographic gold tinsel
Thorax: Spirit River UV treated peacock
Hackle: hen, brown

Lightning bug.jpg (153.89 KiB) Viewed 5741 times

[Mataura mayfly]

If you hated doing it, you are not fishing enough deep fast big water!
The tungsten bead is one of those evil necessity kind of things over here...... sometimes we use it and lead on the same fly!

That is just an iddy bitty brass bead, more for "bling" than weight and looks just fine. If it makes you rest easier, tandem a wee unweighted wet off the barb of this one and tell yourself it is only there for the purpose of getting the wee wet down to the strike zone.
I bet most Rainbow trout would be hard pressed to let that fly drift by. Very nice looking tie, beautiful body taper and material contrasts. And come on, you got to admit, using a bead sure stops crowding the eye on a TUE hook!

[Old Hat]

I know what your talking about. I have used a heavy "tool fly" many times...but it has been a while since I really needed one for trout. Steelhead is a different scenario and your right, this one is more bling than weight.

To be honest, I use so little beadheads that I find it more difficult to tie off and look the way I want, but your right again crowding is not the issue.

[Mataura mayfly]

In one of Hans' excellent videos, he shows how to tie off behind the bead with thread still noodled in a small amount of dubbing- helps hide the unsightly thread collar. But you were aiming for the behind bead hotspot of thread here and have done so well.

Your brass bead will not add a lot of weight, but it would be interesting to see how a TUE hook orientates on the stream bed compared to a TDE hook in the same bead/weight configuration and if either way leads to better snag avoidance.

[Old Hat]

Hotspot was what I was after. I never, never bounce flies on the bottom (except for crawdad and sculpin streamers) So I wasn't thinking about the problems with getting caught on the substrate with the TUE hook. But, once again your right, on the bottom this would be an issue.

[William Anderson]

Carl, I know lots of people to swear by Lightning Bugs and I haven't tied any myself, but I'm foolish to ignore them. This is a nice version. I have a buddy to loves this fly in a #18 and kills with it often.

[Old Hat]

Holy cow! #18
That's a lot of stuff to put on such a small fly.

Edit: now I see there are quite a few variations.

[fly_fischa]

Estaz beadhead buggers, now a pimped up gold beadhead soft hackle, I wonder what's next? I'm worried about you Carl
K

[Old Hat]

Hey Karsten!

I was just thinking of you the other day, I was attempting to tie some of those spanish caddis dries with the Coq de Leon. They are not easy.

...and I was just tying the estaz stones yesterday.

[redietz]

Before I more or less gave up fishing nymphs per se, the Lightning Bug was one of absolute favorites. It certainly caught me a lot of fish. Nice version of it.