What is a Lightning Bug?

What is a Lightning Bug?

Filtering through the seemingly endless lightning bug patterns.

If you google image a lightning bug you are probably going to see a lot of pictures of the insect, but if you narrow your search you are going to see dozens of patterns of different flies. The name lightning bug is just too vague of a category so I'm going to do my best to help make sense of it.

Orvis sells a number of patterns that they may not necessarily call a lightning bug, but the patterns do all fall into a "lightning bug" category. The fly they call a lightning bug is a curved shank, silver and pink pattern with a bead. They have a dubbing body one that looks and fishes really well (its a variation on a prince nymph). The last lightning bug like pattern is the one that looks like the original with a silver body, a pheasant tail and legs, and a bead.

The original pattern is a cool pattern that is tied in red, blue, silver, gold, pink, black, and purple for different waters and conditions. I personally like the red, silver, and purple for around here and silver especially in the winter. The pattern doesn't need a lot of materials and if you already are into tying flies then you should have either all of them or nearly all of the materials.

Another fly that might be also considered a "Lightning Bug" is a Rainbow Warrior. This is a competition fly that works really well over here in the west. The difference between these two flies is one uses pearl flashabou  for the body so the thread can "glow" through. It's a awesome dropper fly. There is a great video that I will link here on how to tie it.

The class of over flashy flies is a intimidating group of flies to fish. They don't look like naturals and that doesn't put a lot of confidence in people when they have a chance to fish them, none the less they work really well as searching flies especially in muddy, pressured, and winter water. Personally I always have a few in my nymph box just in case the river calls for it. 

 Lightning Bug

Hook: 2x nymph hook (Dai-Riki 285)

Thread: Grey or Brown 6/0

Bead: Silver

Tail: Pheasant Tail

Body: Silver flashabou or holographic

Rib: Silver or wire to match

Thorax: Rainbow scud dubbing

Legs: Pheasant Tail