The GETING

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Tied by: Leif Y. Carlstedt, leifyc@albatross.no


The word GETING is Swedish for wasp, and should be pronounced "yeting" The following is mainly excerpted from Lennart Bergquist's excellent book "Flugbindning - paa mitt sett" (My way of fly tying), which has almost become a bible for Scandinavian imitation fly fishers. I'm responsible for the translation from Swedish, and I have also added some tips from my own experience.

The GETING has a simple design with a body made up of four equally sized sections of trimmed deer hair, in alternating black and yellow colours, and a 1x undersized front hackle.

PATTERN

 Hook: Mustad 94833, #10 (alt. Mustad # 80000)
Thread: Danville Fly-Master 6/0 Black
Body: Black and yellow deer hair
Hackle: Dark Dun (alt. Chocolate Dun)

 1. Cover the hook shank with thread leaving the thread at the bend. Cut off a small bunch of black deer hair and remove the tips, leaving only the lower 1/2 inch of the hair. Hold the hair on top of the shank and put to turns of thread around it. Tighten the thread, letting the hair spin around the shank. When the hair is evenly spread, make to more turns at the same place, then proceed with some turns forward through the hair. Press the hair backwards and make some additional turns in front to make the hair stay in this position. The black deer hair should now cover 1/4 of the total body length.

2. Repeat this procedure in a similar manner with the yellow deer hair, ensuring that the first turns are made as close to the previous section as possible. After tightening the first two turns, go backwards with the next to turns before making four or five turns forward through the hair. Press the hair backwards with the thread.

3. Repeat the procedure with black deer hair, then with yellow. Fix the thread with a whip finish and cut off. Trim the body into the desired shape using scissors. Cut the body flat on its underside to ensure a large hook gap. The rest of the body should be round with a short taper at the rear end, just like the natural insect.

4. When satisfied with the shape of the body, place the hook in the vice again, fix the thread and a 1x undersized hackle (i.e. suitable for hook #12), and make 5-6 turns with the hackle before finishing off with a couple of whip finishes.

Notes:

It may be a bit tricky to get the body right. If you're having problems, practice on a larger hook until you've got it right. If the thread breaks, use a stronger thread until familiar with the technique.

The GETING was earlier tied with delta wings made from hackle tips. After experiencing that worn out flies having lost their wings caught just as many fishes, the pattern was changed omitting the wings.

I believe that one of the characteristics which makes the GETING work as a wasp imitation is its very distinct body contour. It's therefore my opinion that the body shape should be made as close to the natural as possible.

Fishing instructions

The GETING should be fished as any ordinary dry fly. Apply a fly floatant.Due to the hollow deer hair, the buoyancy of the fly is fantastic.

It may be fished dead drift (typically in rivers) or retrieved slowly with short pauses to attract attention.

Fishing story (by Lennart Bergquist)

During a period in the late summer, usually in September, wasps become available as a prey for the fish. The air has become colder and some days can be real chilly. This makes the wasps slow and weak, and astonishingly often wasps fall down to the surface when trying to cross a water.

On such a day, my fishing buddy Sten and I was down in a fishing area with put-and-take waters south of our home town Arvika. When we got up to the lake we could se occasional rises over the mirror blank surface.

Two weeks before, a small black ant imitation had worked well so I made that my initial fly choice. Sten, however, put on his favourite fly, the Europea 12, as usual. After a while (during which none of us got any strikes), I changed to a dry midge. I had seen that the fish was rising eagerly each time the midges were observed. Still no success. Then I put on the Geting. That made the difference. Simultaneously with the Geting landing on the water, a rainbow took the fly. I landed it, put it back again and continued fishing. After six fishes I could hear Sten's voice from over the lake.
- Which fly do you use?
- A Geting.
Sten got in a hurry and came as a panting bull moose through the wood.
- Do you have more of these flies?
- No, that was the only one.
- Aren't you a professional fly tyer?
- Yes, but I have too many fishing buddies like you. Anyway, I've had enough fun for a while, you can borrow it.
- Throw it over here! was the immediate answer.
After Sten had changed to the Geting, he caught three rainbows in short time, all of them around 2 pound, and then released them. Meanwhile , I tried a Streaking Caddis which usually works well, but on this particular day only the Geting was working.

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