Species: Bluegill, redear, crappie
Remarks by Randy Leonpacher:
The Jitterbee is an excellent bead head nymph that looks
like a bee with a cricket-like tail. Best colors are black/orange,
black/red or black/chartreuse. This bug is my first line of
offense for bream. It can be fished deep or under a strike
indicator. In either case don't set your rod down
'cause once the bream get sight of this bug its gone pecan....
Materials:
- Eagle Claw Baitholder #080 in size 8 or 10. The Eagle Claw 181
baitholder hook can be used as a substitute. Both are 2X
heavy and have large eyes suitable for the large metal bead.
- 4mm 10K gold plated metal bead (I prefer the Halcraft brand found at hobby stores).
- Medium chenille or fine chenille (vernille) in black, red, burnt
orange, or chartreuse. The medium is right for the size 8 hook, the fine
is perfect for the size 10 hook.
- Black silicon rubber skirt material.
Instructions:
1) Smash the hook shank barbs on the Baitholder hook and
straighten the slight bend/offset.
2) Bend the hook point enough to slide the bead on, then bend
back to normal.
3) Wrap hook shank with thread and tie short piece of silicon
rubber leg -- about 1/3 of a single strand. Double over short
piece to make a forked tail. Secure with thread.
4) Pair up and tie in one color chenille with another color. Secure them with
thread back to the v-tail. Contrasting colors always work best, such as black/chartreuse or black/orange.
5) Wrap paired chenille forward around hook to form banded colors.
6) Secure chenille by tying in just behind bead head.
7) TIP: add a small amount of head cement on thread before putting final
wraps to give it extra resiliency. You'll need it if your jitterbee is
to have any chance of survival after it's been viciously assaulted by a
few dozen gobbules!