Beginner's Buzzer

Orange Beginner's Buzzer

One fell for the Buzzer

Martin Joergensen

A Buzzer is basically an imitation of the pupa of a midge or chironomid - in other words a non-biting "mosquito" in the state between a larva and the adult, flying insect.
Most people will already know midges in two forms: the red blood worm found in many lake sediments, which are the midge larvae, and the big swarms of "dancing" midges, which are the insects mating in mid-air in large numbers.
The midges are interesting to imitate for several reasons:

• They are very abundant, particularly in stillwaters with hundreds of species present in both Europe and the US
• They hatch almost year round
• They are high on the menu for stillwater trout

Because of this, buzzers are particularly interesting when fishing stillwaters, and most of the fishing methods developed for these patterns are specifically aimed at lake and pond fishing.

The sparsest of patterns

One thing that characterizes the buzzer patterns is their sparseness.
The skinny patterns are motivated by several factors. The animals that they imitate are small and slender, and there is often a wish for a fly that moves and sinks freely in the water. Lack of body volume is one way of obtaining this.
This incarnation of the buzzer is a fairly simple version using easily available materials. This pattern also avoids using epoxy or other resins, which is common in many modern buzzer patterns. I found that this buzzer was a good entry point to the world of buzzers - one of the reasons for the name Beginner's Buzzer.
The pattern is very generic, and has not been developed by me. My inspiration stems from flies tied by my good friend the Welsh fly tyer and angler Paul Slaney, but I'm almost positive that he wouldn't want to take credit for the fly either.

Larger than life

Even though midges may be likened to mosquitoes in many ways, their pupae are significantly larger than mosquito pupae. The average length is 8-15mm (1/4-1/2 inch) and the buzzers are therefore tied in rather large sizes. The typical fly size will be 12-14, but larger flies in the 10-8 range are seen too.
But it is not only the imitative powers of the fly that has brought about its success. The fact that some anglers use a plain red, undressed hook as an imitation can underline that fact. No, the concept of buzzers is just as much the way of fishing them as it is the character of the patterns themselves.

Line arcing

Martin Joergensen

Dead drift

The primary way of fishing buzzers is by dead drifting. Since we are fishing in still water there is little water movement to help the fly. If the fly is retrieved, it is often done slowly, mainly with a figure-of-eight-retrieve.
Many buzzer fishing methods will hang the fly just below the surface, and movements in the line will make it rise slightly towards the surface as if the pupa was about to ascend and hatch. Flies are also fished sinking as shown below.
Since the flies in the Beginner's Buzzer style will commonly be fished on a floating line, the wind will have a significant influence on the movement of the fly. The wind is actually used very deliberately in some buzzer fishing methods as described in this article about the Diawl Bach and fishing flies in teams..

Many methods

British stillwater fishing has long traditions, and over the years a wealth of methods have been developed. A common way of fishing buzzers is in a team of two, three or even four flies. The mainstay buzzer setup these days is a team of three buzzers with varying characteristics, particularly regarding sink rate:

• a top fly or top dropper - a light buzzer, typically a fluffy one or one tied on a light hook
• a dropper - a buzzer such as the Beginner's Buzzer
• a point fly - typically a heavy buzzer, epoxied to sink fast or tied on a heavy hook

More on how to tie the leaders and how to fish a multi fly rigs like this in the article about the Diawl Bach.
The reason for the name of this fly is not as much that it aims at beginning stillwater angler or fly tyer, as it is based on the fact that I am still a novice on these patterns and the fishing methods.

Can you say sparse?

During a stay with Paul in his house in Wales we started extrapolating the idea of sparsely dressed buzzers, and honestly did go crazy a wee bit. After having tied a bunch of average buzzers along the lines shown in the pattern description below, we started tying thinner and thinner flies, in the end winding up with something very close to a bare hook. It might seem like useless experimenting, but these flies could easily find their day in a buzzer fisherman's life.

Beginner's Buzzer	Bare shank Beginner's Buzzer
Mylar shank Beginner's Buzzer - quite skinny	Ridicously sparsely dressed Beginner's Buzzer

Martin Joergensen

Buzzer fishing

Martin Joergensen

Tying steps

Curved nymph hook, size 8-12	Attach ribbing
Create body	Wind ribbing
Tie down and trim	Attach shield
Attach sides	Attach herl
Run herl forwards	Draw sides forwards and tie down
Draw wing case forwards and tie down	Trim all excess material

Martin Joergensen

Finished buzzer

Martin Joergensen