The Bumble Bees

Three somewhat significant things happened since my last post. I am sure they will all have an impact on how I tie and fish flies.

First, my wife Angel and I spent a wonderful Memorial Day with Bob and Kathleen Hook. Bob tutored me in casting a fly rod, he is very helpful but I'm afraid I have a long way to go.

The second thing- I got Carpel Tunnel surgery done on my left hand. It's an affliction I have been dealing with since the early days on the trap line and I am happy to have the first of the surgeries done. I'm sure it will help me become a better fly fisherman if my hands aren't going to sleep all the time.

The third has more to do with the fun of tying flies than tying effective flies or fishing them. I had spent some time developing and tying the bumble bee pattern I want to fish and then I found a dead bumble bee in my window sill. I will still tie the pattern I had settled on for fishing, but I spent a half a day tying a more realistic one and it is a lot of fun. I will do more of them. And what better physical therapy could you find for Carpel Tunnel surgery.

The Bumble Bees

There are lots of examples of nicely tied bumble bee flies but I chose to do it because I thought it would be fun and there are no other overwhelming hatches I will need to compete against in the fall where I plan to fish. It also brings back my earliest memories of fly fishing for pan fish and bass when I was a kid.
I tried patterns with black mottled Thin Skin for wings, and black deer hair for legs and patterns with black hackle for wings and legs. What I settled on was feather ends for wings and hackle for legs and to help it float. I also chose to use a light curved pupa hook for the shape instead of the standard dry fly hook. I tied them in size ten to start and 12s and 14s after I had Tied a few.

The Materials

Size 10-14 curved pupa hooks
Body- small yellow, light olive and black chenille
Wing- black feather tips
Hackle- black chicken hackle

I dressed the hook down around the curve for the stinger.

I tied in the black chenille at the bottom of the curve, wrapped it a couple of times and tied it down, then tied in the yellow or olive.

A couple of wraps of yellow over the black, a couple wraps of black over the yellow, and a couple more wraps of yellow to a point where the wings are tied in just a little past half way on the straight part of the shank of the hook.

I chose two evenly sized feather tips for wigs, clipped them to length and stripped the large end of the quill for a place to tie it down.

The first wing is tied in.

And the second.

And the hackle is tied in.

The hackle is wrapped and tied in and two more wraps of each color of chenille.



A whip finish is tied, I painted some yellow paint on the legs to simulate pollen just for fun.

These are the fishing version of the fly, next, the more realistic one for the fun of it.

The real one.

I tied on yellow chenille from the curve to the head.

Melted some thirty pound mono from both ends to make eyes.

I colored the yellow chenille with orange and black indelible markers to look like the real body.

I tied in some small olive chenille to go between the eyes.

Tied in the eyes and the olive chenille between them.

Tying in the antennae, black feather quill.

For the wings, slightly holographic clear cellophane, there's my bandage from the surgery.

I darkened the plastic with marker.

and cut them out and tied them on. I used black feather quills with the feathers cut off for legs just like I did with the antennae.

Here they all are together with the real one. Next, stink bugs.