For many anglers, the very first fishing trip in the spring consists of prospecting a nearby pond with a fly to see if bluegills are in the shallows yet.

They have found that on those smaller lakes where the transition from shallow to deep water is gradual, it's possible to take fish with flies when most of the lake is still ice-covered. The same sunshine that warmed the bottom in the shallows sufficiently to melt shoreline ice conditions will warm it enough to draw bluegills and other fish from deep water.

Besides attracting fish and making them hungry, the warming water awakens dormant aquatic and terrestrial insects. At midday bluegills will forage right against the shoreline, while a couple of hours later when the sun's rays become less direct and the shallows cool slightly, the area can be deserted.

Now, a knowledgeable fly fisher can have a ball. In shallow water, under bright sunlight, the splash of a bobber or a spinning lure will send fish streaking for deep water while the soft splat of a fly striking the surface seems to attract them.

A traditional pattern for this ultra-early fishing is a bee, tied wet. For good reason too, since bees and bee-like flies are among the first land insects along water edges in the spring. Old timers used to figure they could always tell if bluegills were in by making a few casts with a bee.

There are several of these patterns, all with the same body construction but differing in the style wing used.

To tie a typical bee wet fly you need a vise to hold the hook, small pointed scissors, hackle pliers, toothpick or dubbing needle, and especially if your hands are rough, a bobbin to hold the tying thread.

You will also want some fly tying cement, size 000 black nylon tying thread, a dyed red duck wing feather, small black chenille, small yellow chenille a brown rooster neck hackle feather, some winging material and a size 12 regular weight, regular length hook. Don't use an extra heavy hook because this is shallow water fishing.

Clamp the hook in the vise with as much of the bend as possible and all the shank exposed.

Using a toothpick or dubbing needle, coat the hook with cement. Starting at the hook eye, wrapping over and away from you, prepare a base for the rest of the material by spiraling tying thread along the hook shank back to a place just across the gap from the barb. Half-hitch the thread and leave hang with a little weight from the bobbin on it. Don't let the bobbin hang free because it may spin and weaken the thread. Saturate this winding with cement.

Make all wraps over and away from you. Winding everything in the same direction makes for a very secure fly. Wrapping in one direction and then the other loosens the fly.

Cut a narrow section from the red duck feather for a tail. Tie this on top of the hook where the thread is already half-hitched by making a couple of winds and another half-hitch around it and the hook with tying thread. Cement this half-hitch.

The tail on a wet fly shouldn't be longer than the body.

Next, cut two lengths of chenille, one black and one yellow, both about four inches long. With your thumbnail, scrape the fuzz from one end of both chenille pieces leaving about a quarter inch of thread bare.

Tie both pieces to the hook where the tying thread is half-hitched by making a couple of turns of thread around the hook and the scraped ends and half-hitching. Cement this half-hitch and advance the tying thread by spiraling it along the hook shank to a spot two-thirds of the way to the eye and half-hitch it. Let the thread hang with some tension on it and cement this half-hitch.

Now with one hand, hold the yellow chenille forward along the hook shank and, with the other hand, make a complete wrap of black chenille around the hook. Now change hands and holding the black chenille forward, make a full turn with the yellow around it and the hook shank close against the previous black wrap. Repeat this process with alternating black and yellow winds until the spot on the hook where the tying thread was halfhitched is reached.

Secure the two pieces of chenille at this location by making two turns of tying thread around them and the hook and half-hitch. Cement this half-hitch and cut off the excess chenille. This is the fly's "shoulder" or front end of its body.

Next, prepare the brown hackle feather by stroking its fibers so they stand at right angles to the stem, and cutting the soft fuzzy strands away on each side at its butt.

Tie this to the hook just ahead of the chenille body by making two turns and a half-hitch around its trimmed stem and the hook and cementing. The feather should now lie with its tip up past the rear of the hook and its concave side towards the hook.

Tying it on in this position tends to make it wind with the fibers, or "legs", sloped towards the rear. Tying it with the concave side away from the hook will cause the legs to slant forward. Traditionally, wet fly hackle slopes slightly rearward.

Grasp the feather tip with the hackle pliers and winding it on edge, make three or four wraps around the hook close against the chenille body. Tie off by making a turn or two and a half-hitch around the feather tip and the hook as close to the last hackle wind as you can, cement the half-hitch and cut off the excess tip. This is the shoulder hackle.

You can now, if you wish, build up a head with several turns of tying thread and finish off with three or four half-hitches or a whip knot, or you can put on wings.

If you quit now, you will have a plain hackle type fly that will be productive. There are however, some advantages to wings on this particular pattern so we will describe the winging process.

Wing types most widely used are, divided quill section, closed quill section, hackle tip, and hair wing. They all tend to add action and even more important, for fishing in shallow water, they slow the rate of sinking. The hair wing, if tied flat, and the divided quill section wing give a planning effect.

Gray squirrel tail hair has a deservedly good reputation as a wing material for both streamer and wet fly, and when used on a bee is no exception.

To fashion such a wing, first cut the hackle fibers off the top of your fly. Next, cut a clump about the diameter of a kitchen match from the short hairs at the base of a squirrel tail. Hold them on the hook to ascertain the approximate length, then cut off the excess and saturate their butts with cement. Tie them in place just ahead of the hackle with several wraps of thread and a half-hitch around the hair butts and the hook. Trim the exposed butts on a slant and build a head over them with tying thread. Tie off as described previously.

Saturate the head with cement. Make sure the hook eye is clear. Put a new hook in the vise and tie another.