Bodkin / Patterns

Bee

Terrestrial · Trout · Panfish · Beginner · 2 versions

Classic Recipe

  • Hook standard dry fly or 2XL, 10-14
  • Thread black 6/0

Materials

  • Body Alternating bands of black and yellow chenille (or spun deer hair, stacked black/yellow) (full shank)
  • Hackle Brown cock hackle (1 feather, throat or collar)
  • Wing White-tipped mallard secondary slips (optional) (2 slips)

How to tie it

  1. Start the black thread at the bend and tie in both a length of black and a length of yellow chenille.
  2. Wind alternating bands (black at the tail, then yellow, then black, then yellow) forward to the front quarter of the shank to build the striped bee body, then tie off both.
  3. If winging, tie in two short white-tipped mallard slips low over the body, angled back.
  4. Tie in and wind a brown hackle as a throat or short collar for the legs, 2-3 turns.
  5. Whip finish at the eye and cement. For a deer-hair bee, spin and stack bands of black and yellow deer hair instead of chenille, then trim to a fat oval.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Gregg Dressing (1940).

Tying videos

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