Mart's Bibio

A nice thing about this Bibio is that it's versatile. Play with it, use lighter of heavier hooks, fish it with or without floatant, wrap a thinner or denser hackle, and so on. But make sure you have some Bibios in your flybox spring suddenly is here.

6 commentsBy
Martin Westbeek

A while ago I read Steve Schweitzer's article on a great fly of his, the PeeMew Midge. It uses thin, semi-translucent foam for a wing, and when wet the foam becomes even more realistic as a wing. This foam is the type of foam used as packaging material for stereo or computer equipment. It comes in sheets, is white, and about 1 mm thick. The result looks perfect. This fly uses the same type of foam as wing material, so: thank you Steve!

Bibios
Traditionally, the end of April is Bibio time. Bibios (Hawthorn fly, or Bibio marci) are black flies that can be as big as 15 mm, and their most striking feature is a pair of long, dangling legs. Bibios fly and hover around hawthorn bushes and other vegetation, and are listed as terrestrials. They hatch from underground. Apparently they are clumsy, and awkward fliers. They often fall from streamside bushes and trees, or are blown into the water by the wind. And trout like them.

Lake Oostvoorne, a brackish, windswept lake on the Dutch coast, holds big rainbow trout. The lake is surrounded by bushes, and by the end of April the Bibio's are on the wing. Around that time it's a good idea to go to the upwind shore, and fish a Bibio. Until a few years ago, any black fly would work, but the last few years we noticed that on our lake a damp Bibio outfishes a high floating dry one. Mart's Bibio is the result of some experimenting with foam, hen hackle and black Angel Hair to produce a fly that does not quite float, but does not really sink, either. Here are the materials and the tying steps.


Mart's Bibio

Dry fly
Martin Westbeek
brown trout
rainbow trout (landlocked)
Materials
Hook dry fly, size 12
Thread 8/0 Gudebrod black
Body black superfine dubbing
Legs black (or brown) pheasant tail fibers
Wing 1 mm packaging foam
Thorax dubbed black Angel Hair
Hackle Whiting hen, black
  1. Take the thread to the of the hook, dub a body of about 60% of the hook shank
  2. Tie in two pheasant tail fibers on the left and right side of the fly. Traditionally, Bibio's have knotted legs, but these knots are a weak point, where the leg invariably breaks. So I don't bother, and tie in the fibers as is. I use two fibers left and right, and if one of these fibers breaks (these Oostvoorne rainbows can be rough on flies), I remove one of both fibers on the other side, too, in order to make the fly symmetrical again. Don't know if that makes any difference, but it somehow feels better.
  3. Clip a wing from the foam (mine are about 12 mm long and 3 mm wide, to end at the hook bend) and tie that in. Seen from below the fly looks like shown.
  4. Take a hen hackle, stroke the fibers back, and clip the tip off. The little triangle of fibers makes it easy to tie the hen hackle in.
  5. Tie the hackle in, shiny side up.
  6. Bibios have a relatively big thorax and head, and Angel Hair is a nice material to dub if you want to produce volume without adding much weight. and Angel Hair does not absorb water. Take 2 or 3 strands, and dub the Angel Hair to the thread.
  7. Build up a shaggy thorax/head area. If you dub the Angel Hair loose it will take floatant very well.
  8. Take the hackle, double it by folding the fibers back, and wrap it 4 to 5 times. Build a nice head and clip off the thread.
  9. Stroke the hackle fibers to the left and right, clip off any remaining fibers on the underside of the fly if you wish, and you're done.
Medium
Martin Westbeek
Martin Westbeek
Martin Westbeek
Martin Westbeek

One of the nice things of this Bibio is that it's versatile. Play with it, use lighter of heavier hooks, fish it with or without floatant to the thorax or hackle, wrap a thinner or denser hackle (unlike popular belief, a dense, good quality hen hackle can float a fly), and so on. But make sure you have some Bibios in your flybox by the end of April.

Have fun!

Martin Westbeek
Oct. 2006

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