BSA Irresistible Bee

The bee pattern that is, well…simply irresistible. This is a classic fly that comes from Jonathan’s days of working at Bob Jacklin’s Fly Shop back in the 90s. At the time, Jacklin’s head guide Mark Johnson (now a BSA guide staff member) came in one hot and windy August day after floating the Madison and flipped a bundle of yellow and black spun deer hair, straggling hackle fibers, and a few strands of moose body connected to a size 10 hook with a seriously bent shank right on the glass counter. He might have muttered something like “Bee all you can bee” before he counted the tale of the day’s fishing. Turns out trout not only eat bees but they seem to eat them as though they’re angry at them at times.

This has been a staple in our boxes since those days and is a re-creation of a fly that we can no longer find on the market so we have them tied custom. There are bees, bumble bees, and yellow jackets just about everywhere that trout swim. When you need a little variation in your terrestrial offerings, maybe something that doesn’t look like a grasshopper and is made of a material that is a little more environmentally friendly than foam, tie one of these on and see what happens. We’ve caught great trout on this fly everywhere from the western US to both sides of the Andes in Patagonia, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia. A half a dozen irresistible bees will ensure you always have something to throw them that they haven’t seen.