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Phoney Beetlemania
by Neil Robinson


Last week I happened to run into Camo Guy in Te Anau. He was just off to fish the evening rise on river X. As I'd just driven down from Dunedin I declined his offer to join him and headed off to the supermarket and some welcome refreshment. Anyway as I sat watching the sun go down over the lake I couple see a swarm of insects buzzing in the lee of the wind around some native trees and pondered as to their species before other thoughts of far away places took over my mind. A little later I was sitting outside waiting to use the telephone when the light began to attact Brown Beetles. As I sat there serval dropped around my feet and it became obvious that we were mid way through November. Much later Guy returned, having caught a couple of fish and witnessing a fantastic rise, then muttering on about preoccupation, matching the hatch and all those other things that meant he'd not really got into them. After a couple of wines I mentioned beetles and all became clear.

On or around the Middle of November is time for the Brown Beetle to start hatching. These busy little fellas will swarm on warm spring evenings amongst Manuka and Kanuka Trees. Their poor flying ability in as much as a wee breeze means that they often fall into the water and end life in a trout's mouth. They are also accompanied by their green cousins, a little smaller but just as bad at flying, I've always encountered more of these in the North Island where native bushes can be absolutely crawling. Id guess that they are more prominent in the warmer climate. The appearance of the beetles for me really indicates the start of the dry flyfishing season when most evenings will produce some sort of rise as they start to hit the water in late evening and just into dark.

So for this week's tie up I had to replace the ones given to Guy.

Heres the pattern.

Size 14 or 12 shortish shank hook
Tie in a brown hackle
Dub up a plump round body
Wind in the hackle (Palmered)
Tie off at head.
Tie in a Black foam Strip (3mm thick, 8mm wide)

Cheers,
Neil

Neil guides out of Dunedin in the South Island and can be found here. The flies for this week were tied by Bumcast and I since the images Neil sent looked like mysterious blobs. Not unlike Bumcast's fly strangly enough.

 

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