Wooly Bugger

[Phil Lilley]

Wooly Bugger

Jeremy Hunt

Recipe:

Hook: 5263 TMC size 2-10

Thread: Uni-thread 6/0 color to match body

Tail: Marabou that matches body. Add crystal flash if needed.

Rib: Gold, sliver, or copper wire

Body: Flash dubbing

Hackle: black saddle color to match body

Weight: .20 lead wire

Go ahead and wrap your lead on. I like to weight most of the shank when tying mine, but you can do whatever you desire. You will need to leave enough room in the back to tie in a tail. You don’t want to tie in your marabou tail on top of the lead wire. I also leave some room at the eye so I don’t have any crowding when I finish the fly off. For those who don’t know what size wire to you use for what size hook here is the rule of thumb. Whatever size around the hook shank is, that’s how big the lead should be that you’re using. For most streamer hooks in a size 4-8 typically you will use .20 and .25 lead wire.

Make sure that the lead is center before you start you’re thread. Now start you’re thread in the front and wind on top of the lead at angle to the back locking the lead into place. We call this thread dam. It’s when you build thread wraps on each side of the lead in one spot keeping the lead from sliding. Cut the tag end off and your ready to tie in your tail.

Measure the tail to be a shank in length. Go ahead and cut it before you tie it in. Butt the tips up to the lead in the back and then tie it in. Make sure you wind all the way to the bend. You will notice that once you’ve tied down the marabou side that was cut and tied down on the shank. The lead and the marabou around the shank next to the lead wire are still the same size in diameter keeping the base even and smooth.

Tie in your wire, but make sure you tie in enough along the shank so when you go to wind it forward it doesn’t slip out from applying to much pressure. I like to cover the whole length of the shank when I tie mine.

Now with the front section of the feather you are going to pull back and split the barbs evenly on each side. You want to be as close up to the tip as you can. You only need enough of the tip section to be tied in at the front. Tie the tip section in about three to four turns of thread. Make sure that you tie it in concave (Shiny side facing down). Now what I want you to do is slide the feather back so that the barbs you split are even with where the marabou tail starts to flare at the front where the thread wraps start. Look in picture 8 and you can see what I am trying to explain. If I fold down the feather you can see the barbs are even with where the tail starts.

We are going to make a dubbed body instead of using chenille. You can really use whatever you want for the body. I am using some new flash dubbing that Wapsi is experimenting with called Angelina. It is the softest flash dubbing on the market. It is not out yet but I’m sure it will be in the near future. It is real easy to dub with. Once you dub your thread you are ready to wrap forward to the eye.

Palmer the hackle up making each space the same all the way up the fly. You can do as many turns as you want. I don’t like to do too many though. If you start to see your hackle barbs going every direction instead of the nice laid back look. I can probably tell you what caused it. You twisted the stem of the feather around. When you wind the feather up make sure that you don’t twist it from turning it around the shank.

You can’t really see this step, but when you wrap your wire forward make sure you go the opposite direction then the way you went with the hackle. This will prevent the hackle barbs from

getting smashed or tied down. Go slow when you advance the wire up. You can tweak the wire back and forth as you wind forward. This will also help you from catching so many of the barbs.

Tie the wire down and whip finish the fly.

Keynotes: Using flash for the body is a great night fly pattern that really produces a lot of strikes. I like pearl and shades of olive greens for the bodies. Also I wanted to touch on marabou’s. There are all types of marabou but the one I have found to work the best and really makes a good looking tail for wooly buggers is the “Wooly Bugger marabou”. It really cuts out the guessing game on how much and how long. That has already been done for you. Just grab a piece and you’re good to go.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Jeremy - On the wire step.. do you prefer to rib it in using the rotary feature ? Also - ever use crazy colors of wire ?

Brian

[Packman]

I think the rotary would be the way to go on that.Fo Sho fellas!!