Wasps revisited
The new “shut in” policy has really made a change in what you can and can’t do. But I’ll say it really kept me at the tying vice.
I decided to revisit a fly that has always bugged me at trying to tie in the realistic sense, the “WASP”. One of my worst days and fishing was due to a WASP. I was tying on an 18 Adams when I felt a bug land on my right cheek. With a quick brush as an automatic reaction, in 10 minutes I had right eye almost swollen and shut. It was the worst fishing day I ever had.
I never forgot that WASP, or that day. It was a week before I was back to my normal self. What a wallop. I’ve tried tying wasps before, but was never satisfied with the shape or profile. If you look closely, their shape is almost “S”-shaped reversed with two distinct individual body parts. One is the rear body with its tapered downturn tip, to the upper thorax hump that contains the wings and legs leaving an actual slim waist between the two bodies. Now this is a challenge.
I can tell you now, after a lot of tail chasing, I’m satisfied with my results. The fallout however is what I had to do to modify the hook to conform to the outline profile. In doing so I may have over compromised the hook shape thus making the fly worthless. I’ll try and report back. Here are some preliminary planning I did for considering steps to take in tying.
- Hook shape
- Drawing of bug with hook angle required
- Pictures of the completed bug
