Been on a twisted body kick
lately & playing with them a lot. Don’t worry. The fly kind. I get excited
about something & I go on a roll.
I love the striking effects created
twisting varying materials – tail & wing swords, herl, threads, tinsels,
floss – together into a rope & then winding it as the fly body. The wee beetle
presented here represents the austere side of the spectrum of possibilities,
using a single material, made from twisted swords taken from a bronze/black
turkey body feather.
There’s nothing new about the
idea of making a simple beetle pattern from twisted herl. My beetle was
inspired by the Bracken Clock, a North Country
beetle pattern made from peacock herl twisted with red silk. The Bracken Clock
was described by William Brumfitt in an 1875 text, so has surely been around
longer than that. Unlike the Americans who are always looking for something
new, The Brits refine a fly pattern to ultimate usefulness, then they all tie
it precisely that way, fish it for 300 years, & do fine.
Wanting to make a smaller
beetle than peacock herl allows, I chose a bronze/black body feather taken from
a Merriam turkey, twisting the feather barbs, or ‘swords’, with the tying
thread to form a rope of herl for the body. The dark, iridescent, turkey body
feather reflects green & copper highlights, & these subtly hinted in the
twisted fly body.
The pattern makes a fine tiny
beetle &, turns out, serves well to cover wee freshwater snails as well. Some
places, it might even be more useful as a snail pattern most of the time.
Twist Beetle
Hook: #12-#18 (photo fly is
tied on a Mustad 3366)
Thread: black UNI 8/0
Body: bronze/black turkey
body feather barbs or ‘swords’ (about 8 for a #14) twisted with a tag of the
tying thread – use more swords or build up an underbody with thread for a
rounder body
Hackle: black hen or starling
~ & finish.
