Dress this fly on 2X heavy wire, wet fly hooks. The keel effect of the heavy wire helps the fly land in the upright position. The heavy wire is also more bend-resistant for those occasions when you catch overhanging grasses on your cast. Give a good tug to free the fly. However, don’t pick the freed fly up and off the water when this happens. Many times the fly "jumping" from the grass is just what it takes to trigger a strike. This will be a frequent experience if you’re fishing the bug where it needs to be fished – tight to the bank! This fly should land on the water with a good ‘splat’ so delicate presentations normally aren’t required.

The SnoBall Beetle is a very simple pattern to tie and offers exceptional durability. You’ll want to put a drop of "Zap-A-Gap" super glue on the thread wraps when the fly is finished to keep the foam from rolling on the hook shank. Next, the "fifty-cent secret" - strip the round rubber legs off the sheet in two (attached) strands at a time. Tie them directly to the side of the foam in this (still attached) configuration, then separate and trim upon completion. It’s this subtle detail that results in the uniformly splayed legs.

In this part of the country, wind is an almost constant factor while fishing. Consequently, I prefer 7½ foot "weight forward" leaders tapered to 3X. To this, I’ll add a couple feet of 4X, fluorocarbon tippet. Weight forward leaders really help turn over the fly and facilitate fly presentation while casting into gentle 30-mph breezes. On flat water, where fish have more time to examine and reject your offering, drop down to 5X if necessary. Anything less is an invitation to break-off as fish tend to take this fly in the same aggressive manner as hoppers.

Friends and fellow anglers have reported fishing this creation on many of the West’s most demanding and hard-fished waters. My good friend and fly tying mentor, Charlie Craven, fished Colorado’s Frying Pan River with his oldest son this past Fathers Day. His e-mail read: "don’t bother fishing the ‘Pan’ with a SnoBall Beetle, we just caught every fish in the river on the thing!" Charlie is a fly designer for Umpuqa Feather Merchants, co-creator of the BC Hopper - among other notable patterns - and one of the finest young fly tiers and fishermen I’ve ever known. When he gets excited about a fly, I take it to the bank. I’ve personally fished the SnoBall Beetle on the Frying Pan during a major BWO hatch, and caught numerous fish while my best "olive" patterns were being rejected. Charlie offers this opinion: "it catches a lot of fish because they haven’t seen 10,000 other flies just like it that day." Who knows best but the fish? I don’t argue with success!

Charlie Craven shows how it's done