Many years ago, I came across a faded card in a yellowed cellophane envelope that contained three black and yellow flies. The fly tier tied the simple flies on ancient hooks with monster barbs. They had a simple black and yellow body made of fine chenille, and a brown hackle was wound through the body and clipped reasonably close. I would be lying if I remembered the pattern's name, but I remember liberating them from their cellophane prison and throwing them in one of my warm water fly boxes. These flies did a number on my local bluegills. I had intended to put one aside to recreate them later, but as luck would have it, I ended up using and losing all three flies and forgot about them. 

Fast forward a decade or more to this past September, I became reacquainted with this pattern. While scrolling through the feed on the Panfish On The Fly Facebook Group, I saw three black and yellow flies on a faded piece of card stock. Group member James Krul had posted the image. The card indicated that the flies were from the long-defunct operation called From The Hackle House. The fly was labeled an authentic  "Here Come De Judge" (an awesome name I would love to learn more about!). The tier's name was Ralph L. Smith. These were identical to the flies I mentioned early! They were a wet fly bee imitation, designed for trout, if I had to guess. But there was no doubt; these were the same mystery flies I discussed earlier.

Bee patterns and panfish go together. There are scores of panfish patterns that wear the classic black and yellow color scheme. From the classic McGinty, which happens to be my favorite winged wet fly for panfish, to the Jitterbee nymph, as well as scores of topwater patterns, they all resemble the classic black and yellow bee.

I'm confident that fish eat bees when they end up on the menu. I have seen trout sipping yellow jackets off the water in the fall and have seen first-hand, panfish of all varieties take both live and dead bees off the surface. But are panfish fish taking these black and yellow flies as bees, or is something about that color combination attractive to them? To me, it matters not! If the fish eat flies that look like bees, then I will tie and fish them!

I have tied many floating bee patterns over the years, and they have all worked well. I usually tie these floating bees and hornets out of foam. The one thing that always bothered me but never seemed to be a concern of the fish was the lack of "fur" on the fly's body. Some bees, especially bumblebees, are quite hairy. It's a little detail but one I always struggled to get right. Chenille did a good job replicating the fuzz on a bee's body, but the problem is it sank the fly when wet. Great for subsurface patterns, not so good for dry flies! 

Recently Semperfli Fly Tying released a floating poly yarn that comes in a wide range of colors. This buggy yarn floats like a cork and will create a fuzzy-looking body if desired by going at it with a dubbing brush. While they don't yet have a bright yellow in the current range of colors, this was remedied by hitting some white poly yarn with a yellow Copic marker. The end result had just the effect I was looking to achieve. I realize that the fly pictured in this blog post has a yellow head, which flies in the face of the realism I was initially attempting to achieve. I did this for the sake of the fisherman. The yellow head is there so the angler can see the fly in the water, and fish don't particularly care about details like head colors (or fuzzy bodies, for that matter!)

Semperfli's Floating Poly Yarn makes tying this pattern a breeze! It is straightforward to work with and the material floats well without the need for additional floatant. This fly does have a foam underbody, but it is probably unnecessary due to the high floating poly yarn. I added to create a little bulk more than anything else. The wings are bleached grizzly hackle tips, and the thorax hackle is yellow dyed grizzly. The head is made from a yellow strip of foam wrapped around a black foam eye. If you wanted a more realistic pattern, you could make the head black, but I like how the yellow head is extremely visible to the angler.

Give this easy to tie bee pattern a try. Tie a few up and toss them in your panfish box for next spring, may be save a few for the trout as well!

Killer Bee Pattern Recipe:

Hook:  Firehole Outdoors #718 sizes 14-8

Thread:  Semplerfli Waxed Thread 8/0 black (6/0 on size 10 & 8)

Underbody:  Foam strip used for head tied in, folded over, and lashed down to form the body's shape.

Body:  Semperfli Dry Fly Poly Yarn Back & White (colored yellow wth permanent marker).

Wings:  Bleached grizzly hackle tips from an Ewing Mini Pack (10-12)

Thorax Hackle:  Yellow dyed grizzly from an Ewing Mini Pack (10-12)

Head: Yellow foam (1mm on small flies/2mm on larger flies) wrapped around a piece of black foam to foam an eyespot (optional)

Looking for materials for this pattern? Click the links in the pattern recipe or visit the shop!