Reg's (Reg Baird) Hellgrammite , Llama variant w/bead
Reg Baird is a fishing author,tyer,from the East Coast.As I understand it,his original pattern is the only hellgrammite pattern listed in Eric Leiser's ,THE BOOK OF FLY PATTERNS .It makes for a really good representation of the beasty,and if you can tie up a wooly bugger you can produce these.
Not sure if you have anything similar to the hellgrammite out West,but most Eastern fisherpersons should be aware of them.Great for river smallies and trout.I have switched out the marabou tail with Llama Streamer Hair and made the body with dubbed hair from the same....and added a bead as a thorax.
Daiichi 1260 # 10
Thorax:Matte black coloured brass bead 5/32"
Tail :Llama Streamer Hair,75 %Black&25%Baitfish Green.The tail should be of enough thickness
to appear as a continuation of the body when wet,and should be 1.5X the length of the full
body.
Head and Body:Dubbed of the shorter under fur from Llama Streamer Hair,
75%Black&25%Baitfish Green,...with a sparse amount of Lustre Plus in
colour Black added to the mix.The head is dubbed behind the hook eye
and infront of the bead and should be just slightly shorter than the bead.
Body Hackle:Indian rooster of softer fibre,in a chocolate shade of dark dun.
(The original recipe calls for a photo-dyed dark bronze dun.)
Essentially a wooly bugger variant, with emphasis on substantial thickness at the tail,tail length that is 1.5X the remaining body length,and a prefered overall fly length of 1.5 inches.Hellgrammites are the larvae of the Eastern Dobsonfly.
Stephen Procter
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