Bro Staff Beetle
Cheech - January, 2018
The name of this fly is because "beetle" and "bro-staff" both start with the letter B. That's it. But if you end up getting a sponsorship that gets you all kinds of fancy rods, reels, creams, and lotions, please let us know, because we need that stuff too...
Now down to business... Beetles are fish magnets, but they also can kind of be hard to see because they are kind of low profile and black, - similar to Curtis' 72 Cadillac Coup DeVille. That's fine if you are fishing really flat/slow water, but if you are dealing with more riffles, mending, and all that jazz, it's nice to have a fly that is a bit more visible. This isn't really anything brand new because there are tons and tons of beetle patterns out there made of peacock and foam, but it's kind of my modification. I've also not really ever been happy with the legs on my beetle patterns. I have tried the bent and crushed moose trick, rubber legs, wrapped hackle, and Big B's beard. They all work (especially the beard), but when we did the 20 incher video, I realized that the pull over hackle technique has many more uses than just nymphs. After a bit of experimentation, and I found that I like hen cape hackle and starling the best for this beetle because it's softer and adds lots of movement. There are lots of variations for this one and the colors can be endless. Feathers can be swapped out, peacock can be subbed out for dubbing, foam can be switched for CDC, etc etc. Best of all, it's a pretty quick tie! Tie some up and get your summer box looking gooooood.
** I used hen hackle in the video, but I listed starling in the recipe. Either will work well. 4B hen capes from Whiting work really well for this.
~ Cheech
