The Winged Beetle

Every beetle I’ve ever seen on the water has its wing tips visible just behind the shell back halves. This usually amounts to about 25 percent of the insect’s total silhouette. Yet all the beetle patterns I see in catalogs and in fly shops have no wing tips showing. I think it’s another case of taking photos of an insect the way it isn’t seen by the trout and then tying a fly to look like that. It’s easy to photograph a beetle when it’s on a rock or a stick, but that’s not where trout feed, is it?






I’ve caught trout on the Winged Beetle in every stream I have fished it in. From the Frying Pan River in Colorado to the Henry’s Fork in Idaho during Green Drake hatches, as well as on the Tiber River in Italy to a small feeder stream in Denmark. Try it—I’m sure you’ll catch fish on it, too.

The Winged Beetle
Hook: Mustad 79580 size 14, 16 and 18
Thread: Danville 6/0 Black
Tail: Pair of medium dun hen hackle tips
Underbody: Black or brown rabbit dubbing
Palmer Hackle: Black or brown saddle
Shellback: Black or Brown Bugskin strip or 1 mm Black or Brown Razor Foam strip
Note: Match dubbing and hackle colors to the shellback color.

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