Suspended Black Wet Fly

Tied by John Stoeckel

My fly for this year's swap was inspired by Scott Sanchez' article "Suspended Reality" in the April 2006 American Angler magazine. Scott presents the concept of half drowned terrestrials or suspended terrestrials with an ant and a beetle pattern.  Since I've had great success with Tom Dornack's Black Wet Fly, I decided to marry the ideas and ultimately settled on the following recipe ...

Hook: wide gap emerger style hook (I used size 14 DaiRiki 125)
Thread: dark olive
Body: Peacock Black Ice Dubbing
Under-wing: 15-20 strands of black Krystal Flash
Over-wing: Strip of black closed cell foam
Indicator: Pink HiViz

1. Wind the thread back into the bend.
2. Dub the body
3. Tie in the Krystal Flash under-wing and trim it flush with the end of the body
4. Tie in the foam wing.  A drop of cement and couple of closely spaced bands of thread should help keep it from twisting on the hook.  Trim the foam even with the body and so that it extends over the hook eye a bit to form a small head.
5. Tie in the indicator yarn on top of the wing.
6. Wrap a small head under the foam head and whip finish.

I fished this fly in 2006 over the sporadic risers that you sometimes find on a summer or early fall afternoon.. It seemed to work better than my standard foam beetle which has always been my first choice in these situations.  I had very few refusals and the fish seemed to take it very deliberately and confidently. I assume the Ice Dub body and Krystal Flash under-wing protruding through the surface provides a little life-like flash that makes this fly more attractive than the standard surface terrestrial.