Hook Stealth Hook D series dry fly, 10-16 (12 shown)
Thread Black 12/0
Materials
Shell 2 mm foam, cut with a River Road Creations beetle cutter (1 body)
Underbody Semperfli Body Rib, dark olive (1 length)
Wing Semperfli Flat Braid, thickest strand on the card (1-2 pieces)
Legs Medium round rubber (1 strand, tied across)
Sighter Bright foam offcut (1 small tag)
Glue Loctite gel super glue and Z-ment (as needed)
Coating Solarez Bone Dry (one small drop)
How to tie it
Mount the Stealth D size 12 and start the 12/0 Semperfli Classic Waxed. Go no finer than this: an 18/0 will cut straight through the foam.
Lay a thread base down the shank, trim the tag, and bring the thread back up to just short of the middle.
Stamp the beetle body out of 2 mm foam with the River Road cutter, always onto the pad they supply rather than a hard surface, so the cutter keeps its edge. Cut a batch at once; they come out uniform.
Tie the foam in where the thread hangs and work back into the bend, keeping the last few wraps not too tight.
Tidy the underbody and take the thread forward to about a quarter of the way back from the eye.
Tie in the Semperfli Body Rib on top of the shank without crowding the eye, leaving things a touch chunky at the rear where the bulk of a real beetle sits.
Whip finish and get the thread out of the way, then run a little super glue over the thread base to bond the thread to the shank and to the foam. Wrapping the body rib into wet glue is what makes the fly durable, and it stops the foam rolling round the shank.
Wrap the body rib forward in touching, slightly overlapping wraps under a little tension, then trap it with a wrap behind and a couple in front and trim so the tag end lies on top, where the foam will cover it.
Lay down Loctite gel on top of the shank. The gel is chosen over the liquid because it is thicker, oozes around and gives you more working time.
Fold the foam forward over the glue, using the indentation the cutter leaves as your tie-down point. Two snug loose wraps first, then tighten on the third and fourth. Going full force on the first wrap will cut the foam.
Tie in the thickest strand of Semperfli Flat Braid for the wing with about three wraps and trim it to roughly the length of the body.
Pinch a single medium round rubber leg across the shank so the legs sit in the foam indentation, and use only two wraps. Before wrapping, run a trace of Loctite gel down the thread itself so every turn glues rather than needing to be tightened. Thirty wraps over foam will ruin it, and over-tightening will pinch and glue the legs together. Trim the rear legs a little longer than the foam body and the front legs about a third shorter.
Once the glue has gone off, fray the braid wing apart and split it, half to each side, then tie a small tag of bright foam on top as a sighter with three or four wraps, which pushes the split wing further out to each side. Trim it without cutting the flash.
Three-turn whip finish underneath, right behind the eye, and trim. Turn the vice over, put one small drop of Solarez Bone Dry Plus on the whip finish only, clear the eye with the whip finish tool so no resin bridges it, and cure for ten to fifteen seconds.