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| Fat Boy Beetle |
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SPLAT!! The beetle imitation broke the surface calm just a few inches behind the trout’s head. The fish quickly turned and without a moment’s hesitation sucked in the fraud.
The brown had verified the identity of a food form; first, the familiar “plunk” of a bug hitting the water and secondly; confirming it visually by the shape (and maybe color) of the fly. Sounds like food…looks like food…and it is getting away fast; better grab it quick!
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Trout see beetles practically all year long. Even during the winter on a warm day these bugs are the first to venture out stiff with cold, plodding along and tumbling from streamside rocks and logs into the water. From spring through fall beetles are out and about and often find their way into the water, be it a peaceful meadow stream or a freestone tumbling through a hardwood forest. Japanese Beetles although a bane to the farmer or home gardener are a boon to the fly fisher.
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| When fishing a beetle “splatting” is important hence the design of my Fat Boy Beetle…it hits the water hard. Can’t that spook the fish, one might ask? If any fly is cast so that the line hits the water hard it will usually put a fish down except in the roughest water. But a cast can be made that puts the fly on the water first…the line softly following. It is beyond the scope of this article to teach casting techniques. But a remedy to the line spooking a fish can be a longer leader or a lighter line (one or two weight). I like a one weight; it hits the water like monofilament even when I get overexcited and make a bad cast.
Let me relate an incident that caused me to give considerable thought regarding the effect that an object hitting the surface has on a trout.
Years ago I took my youngest son, 10 at the time, and his buddy on a camping/fishing trip. We hiked into an area called the “haystacks” on Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock River. It was summer and the river was exceptionally low. I set up camp, rigging the tent while the boys frolicked and explored. They even did a little fishing. They had brought a can of worms with them and managed to catch a nice catfish which they proudly brought into camp and announced that we would have it for dinner.
Our campsite was beside a wide flat stretch of crystal clear water reduced to no more than two feet deep. Smoke from the cook fire wafted down to the streamside where I prepared their prize for the feast. After decapitating, skinning and gutting the catfish I laid the fillet on a flat rock and flung the remains 50-60’ into the middle of the pool…a little something for the mink, turtles or whatever; I reasoned. I was shocked when a 16-17’ brown trout emerged from under a rock, not 10’ from my position, and swam leisurely out to inspect the offal and then turned and returned to its lie.
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| I was dumbfounded but reflecting on this episode I reasoned that since I had been sitting quietly for 5-10 minutes and the boys were nowhere nearby the fish was not on the alert and was just acting naturally...checking to see if what had hit the water was good to eat.
That was 30 years ago. I had been fishing beetles and using the technique of splatting the fly behind and to the side of a trout. But now emboldened by the “catfish guts episode” I set out to develop a beetle that would hit the water hard…real hard. The result was my Fat Boy Beetle. I use black dyed deer hair…lots of it and mash it down to an oval, almost round, shape. The fly is given a number of protective coats of something that makes the fly more durable than other deer hair beetles and also adds weight. The fly rides low in the surface film, as natural terrestrials do. I tie an underbody of stripped peacock quill; it takes more time and care but pays off especially with the sophisticated trout in today’s heavily fished waters.
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Special order only
Minimum order 2 doz
Give me a call...800-646-2168
| Fat Boy Beetle
$2.85
Free shipping (US & Canada only) on orders totaling more than $20.00
No sales tax (except Pennsyvania residents)
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