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Geehi is an area just a little south of the NSW snow fields and the source of the Geehi River which flows into the Swampy Plains River and ultimately into the mighty Murray.

This fly was designed it seems around 1920 by Dr Keith Zwar from Melbourne as a representation of beetles that found themselves on the river.

It is a well hackled buggy looking fly that floats well. It has turned out to be a very useful fly in the Snowy Mountains and other areas and can be used as a generalised beetle and search pattern with great effect.

One of the key elements of this fly that has been overlooked in many fly patterns I have seen is the choice of the front hackle. Make sure its a 'coch-y-bonddu' type hackle i.e. a ginger hackle with a black centre. The black centre of the hackle when wound in touching turns to the eye of the hook extends the beetle body along the full length of the shank of the hook and I an confident that is one of the keys to the success of this fly.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns from the 95% position to the bend of the hook. Tie in a tail of around 10 golden pheasant hackle barbules Understanding hooks Tie in a length of ribbing material at the bend of the hook. Tie in several strands of peacock herl. Roping peacock herl Form the herl into a herl rope. Wind the herl rope along the rear 2/3 of the hook shank to form an acorn shaped body. Trim the excess herl.

B	Tie a hackle in directly in front of the body Dry fly hackle

C	Palmer the hackle back along the body of the fly forming 4 or 5 body segments. Whilst holding the hackle in place with your left hand pick up the ribbing material with your right hand and wind that forward through the hackle and to just in front of the body creating 4 or 5 body segments on the fly. Tie the hackle off in front of the body and trim the excess hackle with a blade.

D	Tie the cocky-y-bonddu hackle in by the butt directly in front of the body. Take the thtread forward to just behind the eye of the hook.

E	Wind the hackle forward in touching turns to just behind the eye of the hook. Tie the hackle off.

F	Trim the excess hackle. Build up a neat head of thread. Whip finish and varnish the head.

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