video - Geehi Beetle Variant

[CreationBear]

Outstanding bit of local lore, Phillip--much appreciated.

[crazy4oldcars]

That is one of the things I love on this site. Beautiful flies and a history lesson with my morning coffee.
Hans, a beautiful fly, which I believe the local bass and bream population will attack 'con gusto'.
Philip, it is always beneficial to know why and how a fly originated, in my opinion. Your contribution to this thread was wonderful.
Thank you both.

Kirk

[flyfishwithme]

Thank you Hans,
The fly I have is a Size 10 (Hopper size) and not a long shank. I think it looks like a Mustad hook too (probably a 9479 as that was a popular dry fly hook but it may not be the hook that was used in the original 1947 version). The rest is correct. However, later versions were palmered as you have done.
In addition, the body was much fuller. I seem to recall that we used three peachock herls.
I'll tie one up over the next few days and send you a photo.
Perhaps we should listen to the patterns developed 50 years ago, they still work.
Philip

[flyfishwithme]

Okay,
I got to my fly tying bench earlier than I thought I would (the cheese and kisses hasn't missed me yet).
We need to also remember that these flies were not tied with the genetic hackles we get today. Good old Indian Capes were the order of the day and when you look at the flies of yester year they all seem to be over hackled. Two hackles are used for the front and one for the palmer.You will also note that the tail is a little longer than we would normally associate with a dry fly pattern. This is to imitate the long legs of the hoppers. Oh, BTW the ribbing is placed right through the body. This is a fiddly fly as you will find out as you stop the palmer halfway along the body and then rib it. Probably why the fly is now palmered all the way as Hans has done,
Today, with modern hackles we can get these patterns much smaller.
The first picture here is how the 'original' was tied. I have also used an Indian cape:

This picture is of a fly known as the 'Styx Special. An adaptation of the Geehi. The 'Styx' is another river in the general area. I believe that the replacement of the Golden Pheasant with two hackle feathers was to imitate either a Dragonfly or a Damsel Fly. Both of these are numerous in these rivers and during summer you can see fish jumping at them. It is great to conceal yourself and watch a big brown track the hovering insects.

I hope this has been helpful and apologies for the picture quality. I have used my Blackberry.
Philip

[letumgo]

Extremely interesting thread. Great contributions guys.

[Hans Weilenmann]

Good stuff, Philip. Thanks for doing this labour of love in your morning

Cheers,
Hans W

[Hans Weilenmann]

Here you go, Philip.

I retained the hot orange tail (gotta leave in some of 'me'), but delivered the third-third-third layout, with the oversized front hackle and the peacock and gold rib throughout.



Cheers.
Hans W

[flyfishwithme]

Great Hans,
The body of mine is a little denser. I have used three herls and it is similar to the original.

[Hans Weilenmann]

Three here also - I guess mine are a bit more skinny

[flyfishwithme]

And a longer hook.
Still a great fly though Hans.