Okay, it's early September and the salmon are nosing around, why on earth am I discussing beetles? Simple really, I LOVE beetles. Oh yeah, in case you were not aware, I fancy trout fishing a bit too!

To me, beetle fishing is quite like a dry fly version of steamer fishing. It's a time where I can toss out a bunch of the nonsense I ordinarily need to go through in order to get a spotted gem to take my fluffy (sorry to your Britts-it's not a bad term here!) creation. And the beetle itself! Ah what wonderful insect. Ever present. Terrestrial by design so that it is completely helpless once wet. Lazy too, no kicking or flailing around with these creatures, they just sort of wait for the inevitable should they find themselves adrift. And like ants, they do not require a big gust of wind to start their journey to demise. No, these things will often just drop in the water. Ploop! Plop! Splat! You see, they come in different sizes too!

Oh yeah, back to September... Unlike hoppers, the venerable golden-children of terrestrial fly-fishing, the black-sheep beetle is available pretty much spring through killing frost. This means that September is a fruitful month. I tend to look on to my fall and winter guide season by remembering my spring and summer trout trips and personal escapades. I will miss my beetling frolics-unless I am able to sneak away on a late-day jaunt after a long, yet enjoyable, day guiding new friends to big fish. This summer was especially memorable as I got to teach some youthy (no typo-they are young in age but long in skill!) friends how I fish beetles.

The kids from our Youth Fly-Fishing Team USA spent a few weeks on my old stomping waters in and around State College, PA preparing for and competing in the 2007 World Youth Fly-Fishing Championships. As their coach, I felt it necessary to inform them of the importance of beetles on these waters at that time of year (early August). I felt it important because the times of day that they would be fishing were off-peak. I felt it important because two of the three streams were made for beetles. I felt it important, well, because beetle fishing is fun-and it's OK to have fun while you compete!

With added assistance from my friend and fellow coach, possibly the finest fly-rodder I have ever seen, George Daniel, the kids are now probably sick of beetles!

No, seriously. The bug did its damage! In the process, the kids learned that it's not as simple as tying on a beetle imitation and casting to the bushes. Or is it?

Let's explore a bit what makes a beetle work. Factor in all the highlights I mentioned earlier and couple them with the opportunistic behavior of a cover-loving trout and any fuzziness should begin to fade. A common mistake I see is that anglers tend to lump dry-flies into a single category with a single presentation, save maybe a caddis hatch. They tie on a longish leader, probably tapered to a too-fine tippet, and make a long gentle upstream cast, focusing on their bug as it drifts back to them. If they get a rise, they set the hook. Then they are successful and the process is affirmed.

Well, for beetles there are a few flaws here. First, you need to realize that beetles to do not hatch. For this reason trout do not key on them, rather they are aware of them. This means that they will not take up a feeding lie to take advantage of a beetle "hatch" since it does not exist. But, should they encounter a beetle they will rarely pass it up. Next, keep in mind that beetles drop from trees and bushes. When doing so they "ploop," "plop," and "splat." This is far from delicate. It is exactly that "ploop" that gets the trout's attention and causes it to look up. In order to accurately imitate, or even exaggerate, that "splat" the presentation needs to be adjusted. Lastly, because of how a trout will usually take a beetle, an immediate hookset usually leads to frustration.

Let's examine each point in more detail.

Point one: beetles come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. It's really not too important to get very imitative, a pattern that suggests the basic profile will do just fine. I do expect my patterns to contain sufficient bulk to make some disturbance when cast, I like some type of legs for outrigger support, and they need to be durable, flush floaters. In my opinion only two materials lend themselves to beetle patterns: well dyed black deer hair, and 3 mm fly foam. I have a tutorial on the exact pattern I use, tweaked by one of the kids on the team. You can see that tutorial here.

In the east, our trout probably most commonly see and eat the Japanese Beetle. This bug is usually about a size #14 and is rather round and flat. Ignore the coloration since the fish only see the dark profile. That said, trout will eat just about any beetle they see-large or small, round or oval. Japanese Beetles will infest the surrounding vegetation and routinely drop into the water.

Point two: I offer that the "drop" is the real key to maximizing your beetle time! Yes, you will catch some fish fishing beetles on long leader, cast a long way, drifted back to you for a long time. But you are really being inefficient. Focus on the "plop!" Imitate the "splat!" Be the beetle! What I showed the kids was probably uncomfortable for many of them as most of our lessons occurred DURING morning trico spinner falls when the fish were locked hard onto the #24 insects. The anglers that I tutored individually in the mornings were instructed to tie on about an 8-foot leader tapered to 4X (you can easily get away with 3X, some reverted back to 5X). The taper should be rather robust which gets away from more typical flimsy, small-diameter competition leaders. Next, they were told to cast to structure, including the bank. Many folks neglect to think of the bank as structure! Obviously a rising fish should be covered, but you cannot always count on rising fish. Then I let them fish.

It was neat to see the first trico-eating browns take the #14 beetles. I explained how I'd sure rather hook a fish on a #14 hook using stout tippet as opposed to a #24 hook in fine tippet. I also explained that you cannot ignore fishing tricos-some fish are just fussy!

Next came the process of tearing down the cast. It was easy enough to take rising fish-after all they were already looking up. But I showed the guys that they were not taking many fish simply because of their dainty presentation. What I had them do first was to greatly shorten their cast. This obviously forced them to increase the cast's velocity and that bolstered the "splat!" More fish came from some surprising areas. You see, we also worked on covering every stitch of water.

By shortening the cast, they unknowingly shortened the drift. This allowed for more casts-I simply had them redirect each cast to a new, smaller area. Fish started coming from areas not normally associated with "trouty" water. Bank-to-bank, in one foot intervals. Neat-O!

After that I needed to make one more adjustment. The casts were now short and at higher velocities, but they angle was beautifully directed out and over the water-just as it should be. Not! By having the kids change the casting angle from parallel to the water to more perpendicular, the beetles starting slamming into the surface with reckless abandon. Violence! I love it! The results were astonishing to many of these kids. Almost as soon as the fly would hit the surface, the takes would be witnessed.

But we still had an issue. Many of the fish were missed. Bummer! But there's a reason and a solution.

Enter George. George was doing a demonstration on Fishing Creek one morning and he was tossing a beetle. He had a brown spotted by a rock (structure) and pointed it out to the kids-some of whom had been working with me on beetle fishing already. He made the comment that he was going to make his first cast to the tail of the fish! Huh? Thank-you George! A teaching moment...

Now, why on earth would anyone cast the rear end of a trout with a dry fly? Well, this is no ordinary dry fly, this is a beetle. Magic bug! Remember "plop?" Remember "opportunistic?" Bingo! You make the cast behind the fish, the fly "splats," the fish hears the splat and whips around to see the beetle (no leader or tippet since they are downstream of the fly) and "whoof" the gills flare. If you set now you've blown your shot.

Why? Well, some logic applies here. The fly is between you and the fish, and the fish is facing you when he eats. If you set on the take then you will very likely just pull the fly from the mouth of Mr. Trout. You hear bass anglers speak about this all the time when they fish surface lures.

The third point that I focused on with the kids was to delay the hookset. With extreme discipline you can wait to see the line move as you trigger to set the hook. Let's face it, most of us lack that discipline, instead we feed off the adrenalin of the take. But truly, in order to turn those misses into takes you need to delay your set. Find a way that works for you. Some anglers hold a loop of line and drop it at the rise-creating a built-in delay as the slack must be removed before the set is effective. Others count. Some just get lucky.

There is one other phenomenon with beetles that lend credence to the delayed hookset: sometimes a trout will swirl at a beetle to sink it prior to actually eating it. If you set at the rise then you have removed the fly before the fish eats it! Delay that hookset and your hooking percentage will escalate!

To summarize, beetle fishing is akin to streamer fishing in that you are using suggestive patterns fished aggressively to prompt reaction takes from fish who may not be keyed on that particular food item but remain openly receptive to it. By tying suggestive patterns that have qualities built for success, fishing them in an aggressive manner that covers the water thoroughly and creates takes, and delaying the hookset to allow the fish to engulf the fly and turn back upstream, you may just find a new and exciting way to catch trout on a fly.

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