Tuesday, January 04, 2000

Jitterbee

Fly: Jitterbee

Originator:  Randy Leonpacher

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 found at K-Mart 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 (used for spinner baits).


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!