Both those patterns sound good, but I've got a helluva helgrammite story for you all.
I was visiting fellow VFB lister Kevin Machon in St. Louis this past September and we were river small mouth bass fishing in some river whose name I've completely forgotten. Fishing was somewhat slow, but the water was warm and, what the heck, it was better than working!!! Anyway. After pulling a couple of smallies out of the river, we decided to break out the seine nets and kick some rocks over to see if we could add to our respective collections of tying models. I was holding the net and Kevin was kicking rocks...a couple of attempts at this revealed a couple of smallish helgrammites and assorted other bugs. We decided to do it one more time, just for giggles... I stood with the net in the water...Kevin kicked and pulled at rocks. Feeling the net get heavy, I pulled it out of the water to gander at the goo collected. There was the typical river slime, of course. But, smack dab in the middle of the net, there was a 3.5 inch long helgrammite! This thing looked like a prehistoric relic from a planet that had confined evolution to the deranged whims of a cruel madman. After several exclaimations of, "Holy good God!", we decided that we needed this terrifying specimen. Of course, this thing was too mean to go quietly. It resisted all attempts at coaxing it into the collection vial with a stick. We certainly weren't going to use our fingers, so Kevin equipped his hemostats and tried to grab the bugger. This did not have the desired effect. The helgrammite went on the offensive; grabbing Kevin's hemostats and making me seriously reconsider the need for accurate tying models. Well, after some seriously tense moments, we got the thing in the collection vial and breathed a collective sigh of relief. I'm just glad the monster is now stored at Kevin's place in St. Louis; and not mine in Colorado! Who really knows if those things can live in a torpor while immersed in alcohol....... Cheers. Rix Benson --- Allan Fish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Does anyone have a pattern for Hellgrammites (SP)? > > Streamer hook. > Lead > Black Goose Biots > Black Chenille > Black Thread (3/0 works good for this) > > 1) Weight the hook with lead. Wrap the lead well. > You might even want to > put some cement on it. > > 2) Put two goose biots on the back end. > > 3) Tie in Black Chenille. Take one wrap. "Tie" > down with one wrap of thread. > > 4) Tie in a biot on each side of hook angled back > about 45 degrees to the > rear, cradling the chenille. > > 5) Take another wrap of chenille, followed by a pair > of biots. > > Repeat until you reach the front of the hook. Last > two biots angle 45 > degrees to the front, around the hook. > > This is one heckuva carp fly. > > Allan > > > Allan Fish > Greenwood, IN > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
