Bug of the Month

Bug Chuckers Inc. would like to apologize for missing to post a Bug of the Month during August 2013 through February 2014.  Let’s try to start this up again.

March – The year of Big Nasties!  This fly is called the circus peanut.  A great early spring pattern for big water.  It’s an articulated pattern.  The history of this fly and how it came about to be tied commercially is very interesting. 

Recipe

Hooks – Streamer straight eye or down turned eye

“Rear Hook”

Tail – Marabou and Flashabou

Body – Estaz

Legs – Wiggle Legs

Collar – Minibou

“Front Hook”

Tail –  spun or wrapped marabou

Body – Estaz

Legs – Wiggle Legs

Eyes – Large Dumbell Eyes

Thread  – 6/0 Uni

July – I promised a Hopper for July.  I have no special name for this pattern because it is similar to many other hoppers.

Recipe…….

Tail & antennas – Boar Bristle

Underbody – Yellow Dubbing

Body – Yellow, Lt. Brown, Dark Brown 1/16” foam

Legs – Brown Barred Sili-Legs

Wing – Tan Hi-Vis

Hook – Mustad 9671 sz.8

June  –  The Fly Hat is a group of flies that I like to fish in the spring months and into June.   Next month I will show you a hopper pattern that you can run above these. 

KG

May – Iron Lotus  Details and recipe will be added.

April – Bad Medicine  The fly pictured below would be a fly Bon Jovi would fish for sure.  Along with the music great this is a fly I have fished as well.  I created this fly going off of several other flies on the market as well as Steve-O Lazy Juan.

Hook – Size 12 Scud/Egg Hook

Tail – Goose Biots

Body – Med. Wire

Legs – Sili Legs

Thorax- Ice Dub or Peacock Herl

Collar – Partridge

Head – 3/16 Cyclops

Thread – 6/0

March – The Minnow  This is a fly that you can tie on a standard hook or in a tandem rig.  The recipe is for a standard hook setup.

Hook – Mustad 9671 sz. 2 or any similiar streamer hook

Thread – 6/0 Uni White

Tail – Rabbit Straight Cut Natural, Grizzly Marabou, Mirror Flash

Body – Large Cactus Chennile Pearl

Gills/Rubber Legs – White Sili-Legs

Head – Medium Fish Skull

February – The Kryptonite  A great fly to have in the box when you want to fish streamers.  Great fly to tie in white and black as well.

Hook – Daiichi 1750

Tail – Flat Krystal Flash and Olive Pine Squirrel

Body – Medium Olive Estaz

Legs – Olive/Black Sili-Legs

Collar – Olive Pine Squirrel

Head – 3/16 Hot Orange Cyclops Head

This will be the fly that B.C.I will be tying at Cabin Fever.  Stop by and check it out and maybe you can walk away with a few to have next time you are on the water.

January – Montana Creek Special  This has been a good fly and has produced a lot of fish, especially when I lived in Alaska.  I hope my buddy Tom does not send our site a virus for me putting this pattern up as it looks similar to one of his hush hush patterns.

Recipe:

Hook – Mustad 9671 sz. 6 or any similar straight eye streamer hook

Tail – Olive Flashabou and Olive/Natural barred rabbit strip

Body – Bill Skeltons Wooly Bugger Chenille or Ice Dubbing spun

Head – Yarn Ball or McFly Foam

Tie a few and give them a shot.        KG

November – This fly is called the Kathleen Bannana, the name came from a drunk gathering of the B.C.I members.  This fly will catch fish, no matter what time of the year or what piece of water you are fishing.

  Recipe:

Hook- Mustad 9671 sz.8

Tail- Rabbit Strip

Body- Red Thread underlay with White Estaz

Collar- Marred Red Guinea Hackle

Thread- 6/0 Unimaster

October – The HALLOWEEN STONEY!  This fly is a great stonefly pattern for trout but more than that a killer pattern for Steelhead.  It’s a great pattern that could be substituted with any color to make it a good looking pattern.

  Recipe:

Hook- Tiemco 200 R size 8

Tail- Hot Orange Goose Biots

Body- Large Black V-rib with Hot Orange Med. Ultra Wire

Thorax- U.V Black Ice Dub

Wingcase- Pheasant Tail

Legs- Speckled Hot Orange centipede/rubber

Head- 3/16 cyclops nickel

You have to tie this pattern in different colors and you will be glad that you did.  Once again it’s a great pattern and when you fish this you will be rewarded with fish that you want.

Adam..

September – This fly was so top secret we could not post.  We had a lot of success with this fly in the month of September.  We could not post it at this time but once we catch enough fish with it we will.  SORRY!

August – The Drinking Water Crease Bug.

http://bugchuckersinc.com/2012/08/08/august-bug-of-the-month-drinking-water-crease-bug/

July – Whoops, the crew was on vacation and never got around to picking one.  Sorry!  We’ll go for two in August to make up for it!

June – Here she is, our June Bug, The Flashback Pheasant Tail.  Enjoy this new format of a tying video.

[https://vimeo.com/43948484]

May – In honor of Mothers Day, we had to pick the Mothers Day Caddis. This fly was designed to imitate the first real caddis hatch out west that occurs around the day we honor our mothers. But, trout don’t know their geography very well. This fly has become a staple all season long for BCI in PA and western Maryland. Steve-o is convinced it’s the green butt bead out back. We would shoot a video of this one, but Steve-o might end up doing an unintentional Winnebago Man does fly tying demonstration. We are NOT dry fly tying experts…

HOOK: TMC 100 size 14 or 16

THREAD: Black 8/0 Uni-thread

BUTT BEAD: X-small green plastic bead

BODY: Black Superfine Dubbing

UNDERWING: A few stands ofPeacock Kyrstal Flash

WING: Bleached Elk Hair

HACKLE: Coachman Brown

Don’t forget to call your mothers!

April – The fly of the month for April, as we alluded to, is a nymph, not just any Nymph, but the nymph borne out of Steve-o’s frustration with uncoiling copper wire while tying the Copper John. This month’s culturally insensitively named fly is none other than the Lazy Juan.

Steve-o did a video on how to tie it, check it out below:

March – Bug Chuckers Inc. decided to choose one of the flies that we got a lot of interest in at Cabin Fever and that fly was the ” 100 Proof “.

KG’s 100 Proof

Hook – Mustad 9671 size 2

Tail & Dorsal – Straight Cut Rabbit “Barred”

Body – Large Estaz “Brown”

Legs – Sili Legs “Brown and Black”

Collar – Guinea Hackle “Orange and Black”

Head – Gold Bead “3/16”

Tying Instruction – The story goes that on one cold night KG was enjoying his favorite alcoholic beverage, will let you use your imagination on what it may be, when he came up with this pattern. It is a new pattern of KG’s for 2012 but it has not been fished yet although similar patterns like this have and they produced well for him in the past. Start out by tying your tail in with about 1/2 inch extending beyond the bend of the hook. Remember not to cut off the rabbit because you want to use the same piece as your dorsal. Tie in your Estaz and begin to wrap a 1/4 of an inch up the hook. Once you have your Estaz wrapped tie it off with your thread so it stays in place. Tie your Sili-legs in and continue with your wraps of Estaz another 1/4 of an inch. At this point you should be pretty close to your bead head. Tie in your Sili-legs again and make one or two wraps of Estaz before tying it off and trimming. At this point your body is done and go ahead and trim the Estaz on the top part of the hook. By doing this the rabbit strip will lay flatter. Bring your rabbit strip to the front of hook and tie off and cut the excess. Make sure you secure your strip with several tight wraps. Last step is to take a short Guinea feather and tie it in from the tip and make two or three wraps and tie it off. Once this is all completed go ahead and tie your thread off and hit it with some type of head cement. Try tying some of these patterns and fishing them but be sure to let us know how you did.

February – Fly of the month or should we say flies of the month came from our seminar B.C.I put on at the Upper St. Clair Fly Fishing Club. The first two were tied by KG and both flies are sculpin patterns. The second two are flies tied by Ryan.

“K.G’s Sculp-motion”

Hook – Tiemco 200R size 4

Thread – Olive 6/0 or similiar color

Tail – Straight Cut Rabbit Strips “Olive Barred”

Body – Lead wrapped under body with Skelton’s bugger chenille “2 colors of olive”

Gills – Straight cut Rabbit “Olive Barred”

Head – Sculpin Helmet size small

Tying Instruction – To tie the “sculp- motion” first start buy wrapping some lead onto the hook stopping it about 1/4 of an inch back from the eye. Take your rabbit strips and cut them at 1/2 of a inch and zap-a-gap the tips and tie it in to sandwich the bend of the hook. Now you are ready for your body. You can use any type of bulky chenille material or even Estaz for more of a flash. I used Bill Skeltons Bugger Chenille because it has great action in the water. Using two strips of chenille and wrapping it towards the eyes gives you a variation of color as you can see. The two colors I am using are basically a light olive and a medium to dark olive. Once you wrap the chenille and tie it off basically 1/4 of an inch back from the eye tie in your rabbit strips for your gills. These pieces need to be about 3/16 of an inch. Once they are tied in build up a head with your thread and tie it of. Rotate your fly around making the hook point facing up, then take some zap-a-gap and hit your thread. Last but not least slide your Sculpin Helmet on. You just tied yourself a Sculp-Motion. Fish this pattern on the bottom on a drift or depending on the section of beat you are fishing swinging the pattern can be effective as well.

“K.G’s Sculpin Bugger”

Back Fly

Hook – Mustad 9671 sz. 2

Tail – Olive Flat Krystal Flash and 3 Olive mini squirrel strips

Body – 1. Lead wrapped under body

2. Olive Estaz Chennille

3. Olive Krystal Hackle

4. Olive Barred Schalppen

Front Fly

Shank – Fish Skull’s Articulated Shank size small

Tail – Olive sili-legs

Body – Olive Estaz Chenille, Krystal Hackle, Barred Schalppen

Gills- Olive mini squirrel stripps

Head – Sculpin Helmet size small

Tying Instruction – Well I am not going to lie this pattern has a lot going on but when you break it down on how to tie it is just like a bugger pattern. First start buy wrapping lead on your trailer or back hook. Tie in your flash and squirrel strips. Tie in your schalppen, krystal hackle and then your estaz. Wrap your estaz to the eye followed by your schalppen and krystal hackle together then tie of. The back hook is done. To connect using Fish Skulls articulated shank is pretty simply. just slide your eye into the open part of the shank and place the shank in your vise. Tie your thread to seal the open part up and zap-a-gap to lock everything in. If you do not want to use these shanks simply use another hook and use some type of braided line to attach each other. Once you have the shank locked in tie in your tail which consist of sili-legs that has 4 peices sticking out on each side. To wrap your body repeat the same step as you did when tying the body material for the back hook. Wrap everything off about 1/8 inch back from the eye. Tie in your mini squirrel strips for your gills. Build your head up and zap-a-gap. Slide your Sculpin Helmet on and sit back and ponder chucking this big nasty.

HOOK : MUSTAD 80400 SIZE 4

TAIL: MARABOU (COLOR TO MATCH)

FLASH: CRINKLE FLASH

WIRE: BRASSIE SIZED GOLD ULTRA WIRE

BODY: KELLEY GREEN ESTAZ

OVER-WING: ZONKER STRIP (COLOR TO MATCH)

COLLAR: CHUNKS OF ZONKER STRIP

HEAD: FISH SKULL GOLD SMALL/MEDIUM

TYING INSTRUCTION: This pattern is very simple. Tie in your marabou tail, and then flash at the rear. Tie down the zonker strip down in the back, making sure the length of the zonker strip is equal to the marabou tips. Tie in the wire at this time and the estaz. Wrap the estaz forward, then wrap the wire forward and cinch the zonker strip down (with the wire) in the middle of the fly. Then wrap the wire forward to the head and tie off. Tie off the zonker strip at the head and tie in the collar/beard so that the bunny goes all the way around at the neck of the fly. Attach your head and eyes to the front of the fly using zap a gap, and then you are fininshed. Fish this using a stripping method or swinging method. Open up your loop when casting…back cast slightly side arm and the go forward over the top.

HOOK(FRONT) : MUSTAD 80400 SIZE 4

HOOK(TRAILOR): GAMAKATSU OCTOPUS SIZE 4

TRAILOR HOOK ATTACHMENT: POWER PRO BRAID 40LB

TAIL AND BODY: ZONKER STRIP

FLASH: CRINKLE FLASH AND FLASH BACK

RUBBER LEGS: OLIVE AND BLACK SILI-LEGS

COLLAR: OLIVE ICE DUB

HEAD: FISH SKULL MED (COLOR TO MATCH)

TYING INSTRUCTION: That’s right brothers, this here is the Articulated Sasquatch! This pattern is new for 2012 and we are looking forward to hunting with it. To tie this pattern you first need to tie your straight cut rabbit strip to your stinger hook. Your trailor hook needs to be attached to the front hook or shank with a braided line. When attaching the braided line make sure you seal it with some type of hardener. Go ahead now and tie your rabbit to the front hook and cut the access off. You then will want to wrap in your cross cut rabbit and wrap it towards the eye of the hook, about 1/8th of an inch back from the eye. Wrap your sili-legs in giving the fly two strands on each side. Follow the same step but tie in the krinkle flash and flash back. The reason behind all the flash is we want the fish to see this squatch unlike the other big foot brother. Once all the flash and legs are tied in go ahead and wrap a collar using ice dub and tie it off. Take your zap-a-gap, hit the head and slide your skull on. If you want go ahead and wrap a small thread wrap in front of the skull to be sure your skull does not come off.

January – Discharge Special

Hook – Mustad 9671 size 6

Tail – Olive marabou with olive Krystal flat flash

Body – lead wrapped under body with olive estaz over top

Head – Orange Cyclops

Basically a knock off of a bugger but this pattern is super fast to tie and has been more productive than we would have ever thought. Black is another good color to tie using the same steps. Tie some and fish them and let us know what you think.