Yowza. I saw these on Anthony Naples’ site, and had to make some. They just seem like such a natural combination, yet it had never occurred to me to put the elements together like this, and I’ve yet to see them elsewhere. Maybe they’re well known, I don’t spend a lot of time in the online world.
Even before putting them in the water, the idea was just so perfect, they almost had to work. And boy howdy, did they work. On a just completed stay at the cabin (trip reports to come), the first day I fished these, they accounted for all but two of 14 rainbow and 3 wild browns, then the next day all but one of 20 wild browns. They don’t just work, they kicked it on two very different streams, one a heavily fished stocker, the other a protected catch and release wild brown stream. I mean they kicked it. They took fish from pretty much every likely holding position on both streams.
And they’re killer bugs, so they’re extremely quick and simple to tie. I did it like this: #14 Daiichi 1560, bend down barb, put 7/64″ gold tungsten bead on. Mount in vise, add 10 wraps of 0.015 lead, push it forward to trap the bead. Tie in 8/0 fluorescent orange UNI thread behind the lead, wrap a foundation back to the bend, come forward and make a dam to secure the lead, wrap over the lead, and generally make a nicely tapered thread base, ending with the thread behind the bead. Tie in a five(ish) inch strand of sand killer bug yarn, wrap it back to the bend and forward again, controlling taper by twisting the yarn more or less, and tie it off behind the bead. Form a hotspot band with the thread (the 8/0 UNI is what George Daniel uses for Frenchies on his YouTube demo, but it’s tightly corded – to cover the bulgy yarn a thread that you can flatten more, like a 70 denier Ultra, might work better, but the UNI works fine) and whip finish. Colour the yarn with a sand felt marker, done.
It’s kind of like the front half of a Frenchie and the back half of a killer bug (minus the copper flash at the rear). And while it’s only a two day sample size, it’s the most effective fly I’ve used since returning to fly fishing last year.