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BowmandjkDecember 17th, 2007, 12:28 pm
erie,penna

Posts: 16		 can anyone tell me if the devil bug is any good onpa streams and if so how is it tyed
TaxonDecember 17th, 2007, 2:19 pm
Site Editor
Royse City, TX

Posts: 1350		Bowmandjk-

Orley Tuttle designed his bug to imitate the beetles he saw smallmouths eating on his local lake. He made it by laying a thick bunch of deerhair on top of the hook shank, lashing it down fore and aft, clipping the front into a stubby head, and leaving the rear tips of the hair to flare around the bend of the hook.

When Tuttle showed his odd creation to his wife, as the story goes, she declared: “Looks like the devil to me.” And thus it was named the Devil Bug.

If the Devil Bug wasn’t the first deerhair bass bug, it was certainly the first popular one. By 1922, Tuttle was selling 50,000 bugs a year in more than 800 combinations of color, size and design — moth bugs, beetle bugs, mouse bugs, and even a baby duck Devil Bug — and competing quite successfully with all the commercial cork-bodied bugs that had by that time hit the market. The Weber Life-Like Fly Company began mass producing Henshall Bugs sometime after that.


As to tying instructions, see this video.

As to effectiveness on PA streams, it looks to be a pretty good imitation of a floating terrestrial beetle. I would suggest tying it with dark olive or black chenille and tossing it under overhanging branches in the summer.
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
BowmandjkDecember 17th, 2007, 2:28 pm
erie,penna

Posts: 16		taxon thanks so much for the reply
MartinlfDecember 17th, 2007, 5:13 pm
Moderator
Palmyra PA

Posts: 3233		Interesting, I believe Gary Borger ties a fly he calls a "devil bug," See his book, Presentation.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"

--Fred Chappell
OldredbarnSeptember 27th, 2013, 10:37 am
Novi, MI

Posts: 2608		Roger,

I was banging around on the web when I found this old post. I am the corresponding secretary for my fishing club and part of my job is setting up speakers for our club meetings.

This past Wednesday we had John Cleveland from Eppinger Lures. The company that gave the world the Dare Devil spoon is located in Dearborn here and has been for over 100 years. It is still in the family.

Why would we have a lure company rep at a fly fishing club meeting? John has fly fished all his life and his presentation was on fly fishing for Lake Trout up in the Northwest Territories in Canada. 20-30lb trout on a fly! Wonderful presentation!

The reason I bring this up here...Karen Eppinger still ties the Tuttle Devil Bug and John brought two to our meeting the other night and gave one to me and the other to our treasurer.

The one he gave me is still in the packaging and looks like a mouse. The other one was closer to the original and looked more rough and like a large beetle or moth. Mine is going unopened in to my fly collection.

John told me a story at dinner about a time, when he was young, when he and a friend drove out west and camped near the Henry's Fork...1971 or so. He said the guys in the local fly shops were good to them and gave them flies to use and told them where to go.

He told me about one late afternoon when they were fishing and Lee & Joan Wulff were fishing below them and Swisher & Richards above them...He said, "We were kids, didn't really know what we were doing. Slashing the water really, but we knew we were in the right place." :)

He fly fishes now for these Lakers at Great Slave Lake, and Big Bear Lake etc...He uses 9&10 wt rods...Monster fish! He said that where these fish exist they are the alpha dogs which explains why the Park folk are so concerned they they are in Yellowstone Lake.

He had a picture of a 25lb+ fish and it had another large fish's tail hanging out of its mouth!

Beautiful up there. When they take a break from the monsters they fly fish for large Grayling. He said that after a while you get bored with the 15 pounders and want to get them off as soon as possible so you can chase bigger fish...I would love to have that problem! :)

Anyway! For what its worth.

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
OldredbarnSeptember 27th, 2013, 10:59 am
Novi, MI

Posts: 2608
Life is sometimes more interesting with a little mystery in it.

As I said above I'm in Grayling and we are going to clean the Manistee tomorrow. Once I got up here I snuck off to a "secret" spot that I've fished since 1991. It rained a bit today and the humidity was high...Fogged up glasses etc. Mist thick above the river.

When I got to my spot there was a truck backed in there. I wasn't sure if they were fishing or hunting.

I got off the river at seven. There was a note under my windshield wiper. It was a small zip lock and inside it were 14 flies. Small streamers. The note simply said, "Thought you might want to try some Manitoba flies on these Au Sable browns. All the best!"

The flies look like the Fuzz Puppy on Marks site on Hans Weilenmann's site.


I decided to move this from Mark's passing page and print a follow up since we are talking flies here.


http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/how-to-tie-the-ddh-leech/

Here is the link to the guy that left the flies on my car and how to tie his fly. Check it out.

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Jmd123September 27th, 2013, 10:24 pm
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2611		Spence, send us a picture of that Devil Bug! There was an article on that fly a few years ago in one of the magazines, and it looked deadly...and like quite a chore to tie as well!

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
OldredbarnSeptember 28th, 2013, 12:46 pm
Novi, MI

Posts: 2608		Jonathon,

Google, Tuttle Devil Bug, and some pics of the old collector flies will show up...The mouse and the moth etc.

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

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