Bob Borden’s simplified version of a Royal Wulff; the original Beetle Bug itself was a simplified Royal Coachman, subbing red floss for the floss/peacock body. Borden’s calls for Hareline Fluorescent Red dubbing (supposed to turn brown when wet); didn’t have any so I mixed some plain red and hot pink rabbit. Also supposed to use Coachman brown hackle, but mine appears to have gone missing (time to spend an hour in the basement re-organizing my stuff) so I subbed brown.
Lost all the pics for the winging section, but it’s just a standard Wulff - you can use the Thunderhead sequence as a reference http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?53906-Thunderhead-SBS
hook - Dai Riki 320 #12
thread - Danville 6/0 black
tail - moose body
abdomen - dubbing fluoro red
wing - calf body white
hackle - brown (Coachman preferred)
Part 1
Mash down barb, start thread at 70% mark
clean, stack, measure (shank length) a clump of calf body
tie in, trim butts at an angle and cover with thread wraps
clean, stack, measure (shank) a clump of moose body; tie in, trim at junction with wing butts and smooth with thread wraps
pull wing up and set angle with thread dam in front
I love the look of calf, but usually “wuss out” and use widow’s web or such because it is such a pita to deal with that big gob of hair tying it in. Either that or I don’t use enough in an effort to make it easier. Do you have any secrets to making that gob of calf easier to work with?
Nothing wrong with the synthetics - stuff is easier to work with and seems to shed water very well. No real secrets to working with calf - for me, the most important things are proportions (amounts) and thread control (especially with calf body). Don’t use too much and really lean on the bobbin when you tie it down; if you don’t break the thread every once in a while, you’re not using enough tension. The first few wraps are the most important - get them right and the wing will come together pretty quickly; too loose and the wing will either spin around the hook or you’ll have to use so many wraps it’ll look pregnant
To tell the truth, I really don’t care much for calf body - it does stack well and looks very pretty but that’s about it. The stuff is slippery, doesn’t compress well and usually short fibered (I did manage to get a piece from Charlie Craven that was much longer than any I’d found in other shops); I am amazed by folks that can tie flies smaller than #14s with it.
I much prefer calftail. It is a bit of a pain to stack, but if you do it roughly by hand and then put it in the widest stacker you have, you can get the tips pretty even. It compresses a bit when you tie it in so it’s easier to keep it in place and although I can’t prove it, I think the crinkly nature helps it shed water better than the body hair. Calftail is one of the materials I will not buy online - quality differs greatly from one to the next and many aren’t really suitable for winging dries; gotta take them out of the bag and stroke the fibers to make sure they’re what I need.
Here’s the Palmered version of the Beetle Bug (I did not know that “palmer” is a term the English use for caterpillar) with a calftail wing.
