Mario Capovía Del Cet
Step by Step

Lightning Bug (variation)

In January of 2005 I was surprised when I saw a young american angler at the Manzano pool in the Chimehuín River (Patagonia). Not only by the way in which he casted and mended the line, but also because he caught five rainbows (some pretty decent) in about twenty minutes time at this spot that gets View more...In January of 2005 I was surprised when I saw a young american angler at the Manzano pool in the Chimehuín River (Patagonia). Not only by the way in which he casted and mended the line, but also because he caught five rainbows (some pretty decent) in about twenty minutes time at this spot that gets heavily pressured by many anglers.He had a great advantage because he was well built and heavy and this allowed him to reach a deep riffle where very few anglers would dare to stand at.He was casting upstream with an indicator, letting the nymph cruise all along the pool´s deep edge as he recovered line rapidly to avoid drag. Then, he would move the rod softly so that the fly could finish its drift downstream. It was a nice thing to watch, because he really knew what he was doing.Taking some time to watch another fisherman is a good way to learn. How he gets in the water, how he moves around, casts, corrects the line, working the drift of the fly, and so on. If the other angler does things well, then you can learn. And if he doesn’t, you also learn what not to do. As he left the water, we kindly introduced ourselves, and despite some language difficulties we understood each other fine because we were both fishermen. We swapped our fly boxes to check out new flies and he told me that he was using a Lightning Bug that day. After seeing how well he did and since I always carry my fly tying materials, I tied several of these the next day. I have to confess I wouldn’t choose this nymph from the box, but given the results I had when fishing with it, I started liking this one, like every angler does when he starts having good fishing with a certain fly. It has become one of the “must have” flies in my fly box. It´s really simple to tie it and the materials are easily available. I truly recommend it.It can also be tied with fine rubber legs in an X-shape, this has given me really good results too.Developed by the late Larry Graham of Kirkland, WA in 1992, a noted fly tier and fly fishing guide. Originally, it was developed for the Yakima River but quickly became popular throughout most of the Western streams. Brass beads became available for fly tying during the late 1980's and Larry saw the advantage of designing a nymph utilizing this beadhead for quick descents. He desired some flash and used flashabou as a ribbing but found that it just was not durable. Larry resolved this problem by using flashabou for the abdomen and ribbing it with copper wire. As the design progressed, Larry used Pearlescent Mylar for the abdomen since it had a greater durability and came in different widths. The material also gave a subtle green coloration to the abdomen from the refraction of the brass colored hook. A peacock thorax blended nicely with the greenish abdomen and legs were added using hen saddle hackle fibers. The pattern was first published through Fly Tier magazine in Spring 1998 and a subsequent book by Leeson and Schollmeyer, "Trout Flies of the West" (1998).

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List of materials

MaterialsThread: 8/0, black.Head: Bead head, silver or gold.Tail: pheasant feather collar fibers.Abdomen: flat silver tinsel.Thorax: peacock herl fibers.Wing case: flat silver tinsel.

Steps

Step 1

Place the bead head on the hook and then set the hook on the vise.

Step 2

Tie some pheasant feather collar fibers to makethe tail.

Step 3

Tie the flat silver tinsel next to the base of the tail and make the underbody with the thread. This should have a conic shape, getting thicker as it gets closer to the head of the fly.