Materials
1. Hook size 10 to12 straight or curved will work.
2. Black foam . You can use other colors also.
3. Peacock Herl.
4. Black rubber leg material.
5. Orange, yellow or green foam for visual or use as a strike indicator.
Instructions
1. Mash down the barbs on the hook or use barbless hooks.
2. Place the hook into the vise and start thread and wind back and forward building up a nice thread body.
3. Cut medium size strips of foam about 1/4in. in width.
4. Trim one end of the strip of foam to a V shape so as to make it easier to start the tie in at about 1/4 in. from the eye of the hook. Be sure to leave plenty of room for the tie off point for the finish.
5. Tie down the foam by wrapping the foam down back to the bend of the hook and then get several wraps back to front and the back to the bend leaving the end of the foam hanging out the back.
6. Take 4 to 5 strands of peacock herl and tie those in then spiral wrap those in forward with close wraps to about where the tie in for the foam is at and tie the peacock in there well and trim off the excess.
7. Next comes the fun part to make it look like a beetle. Pull the foam up and over to where your thread should be still at after tying off the peacock and make several wraps to pull the foam down. Several wraps then tighten down to the shank. Your foam should be sticking out the front past the eye where you can cut that off at an angle. Don’t cut it too short cause this is going to be the head when you finish that in the last step.
8. Next the rubber legs tie in. With a lengthy piece of rubber leg material tie in on each side of the foam with at least 1 to 3/4in. in length on both sides and tie them in well here. The legs should point out forward and back at an angle. Tie in well to firm them in well.
9. Take a small piece of colored foam for the visual and place right on top of where everything is tied in and tied down and whip finish with a couple good whips and snip off the thread. Note: you will not whip finish at the eye of the hook.
10. Last step: With your scissors you can trim the foam to give it a good look of a head. Now you can turn over the fly and put head cement or UV finish and cure it where the thread is at.