Last week Matt O’Neal from the Savage Flies YouTube Channel featured a tutorial on tying the Triangle Bug. Matt did a great job tying up one of my favorite panfish patterns! The Triangle Bug is one of my most popular patterns, and it is very easy to tie, as you will see in Matt’s video.
The Triangle Bug is an unusually shaped topwater fly. The body of the fly is in the shape of a triangle, hence the name. The unique shape of this pattern serves an important purpose. Bluegills and other sunfish have notoriously small mouths, but despite this, they often take flies very deeply. It can be frustrating for the angler and harmful to the fish to remove a fly from a deeply hooked sunfish. The triangular shape of the fly was designed to keep the small-mouthed bluegill and other sunfish from swallowing it too deeply. The narrow rear portion of the fly allows the small-mouthed panfish to take the fly without difficulty and the broad front end keeps the fish from swallowing it too deeply.
I did a video on tying the Triangle Bug in the past (you will find it below), but I will be the first to admit you will enjoy Matt’s video a lot more! I also did a step-by-step tutorial you can find by using the button below.
If you don’t tie your own flies I am currently accepting orders for custom-tied Triangle Bugs. I only open up custom orders a few times yearly, closing down when the order volume gets too high. So depending on when you read this post, the link below may or may not work.
You can find all the tools and materials you need to tie the fly below. You can use the code DISCOUNT10 to save 10% on the foam cutter, hooks, foam, leg, and tailing material. I apologize in advance if you find stock on some items low right now. We had a very successful Black Friday sale that depleted a lot of inventory. More stock is on the way, and I will keep the discount code active until the end of the year for anyone that wants to purchase a cutter and materials down the road.
Please note there are only about a dozen cutters in stock right now, and once they sell out I may not see more until the next year.
Finally, we have a solution for those fly tiers that want to cut out perfectly shaped bodies for the Triangle Bug. We have partnered with River Road Creations to create a custom foam cutter for the Triangle Bug.
The bodies created with this foam cutter are best used with a size 8 straight eye streamer hook.
This 2mm Foam is a very durable, high floating, condensed closed-cell foam that works great for all types of foam patterns. This is the foam used for our famous Triangle Bugs and it is available wide range of colors.. The 2mm thickness is perfect for creating all of your favorite panfish sized foam fly patterns or layer it for larger flies. This material can be easily cut by hand and works well with commercially made foam cutters.
Each package contains two 4.5” x 6” sheets
Calf tail is our favorite material for the tails on Triangle Bugs. It is also great material for underwings on streamers, parachute posts for dry flies and wings for both wet and dry flies.
Calf tails are available in a wide range of natural and hot colors.
Barred Medium Round Rubber perfect for legs on streamers, nymphs, and terrestrials. They come sheet style, stuck together in a row, making knotting legs , measuring and other such things extremely easy.
Available in single colors or in an assortment pack