Woolly buggers

[Gene L 0]

I'd keep it simple as possible. Get some chenille, some hen feathers, and blood marabou and you're there. Watch the video but make it as easy on yourself and stick to basics. A very effective streamer.

[rstaight 0]

In my tying classes we were told the wooly bugger was intended to imitate a helgramite. But it does a much better job of imitating a leech.

 

I can't argue about the leech. Keep the tail on the sparse side for action. To much bulk will kill it.

 

And Gene's advice about sticking to the basics.

[Dave G. 0]

In my tying classes we were told the wooly bugger was intended to imitate a helgramite. But it does a much better job of imitating a leech.

 

I can't argue about the leech. Keep the tail on the sparse side for action. To much bulk will kill it.

 

And Gene's advice about sticking to the basics.

It can imitate bait fish, stone fly nymphs, split the tails and you have crayfish, crawdads, longer tail leeches. And done correctly a certain way at the right size, damsel nymphs and hex nymphs. All with slight variations.

Then you can spin off with crystal chenille and start another whole batch of stuff it loosely imitates. The thing is, it catches fish and often when nothing else will. That 24" salmon in Maine caught on one of these ? It had peacock herl body and grizzly hackle with a black tail right at a time when the big stoneflies were out. The fish didn't even wait for the bugger to sink, he jumped right on it the second it hit the water. I've had the same thing happen in ponds with big brown trout during the time of year that Hexes hatch on a about a #10 Olive at first light of morning. Hexes are an overnight hatch, I can only think the three big browns I got in that first light were on the remnants of the night hatch. This pond is prolific with big hexes though.

[flytire 0]

i prefer to have less "junk in the trunk"

 

[rpm0024 0]

i prefer to have less "junk in the trunk"

 

thats a good looking fly right there.

[Gene L 0]

I know it imitates a leech, but I've never, ever seen a leech in a trout stream. Or even in a pond, for that matter. I've certainly never caught a fish with a leech on it. All that being said, I know leeches are good for bait, not where I live, but in other places they use them. I think a WB imitates something good to eat for a fish, whatever that may be.

[josephcsylvia 0]

I know it imitates a leech, but I've never, ever seen a leech in a trout stream. Or even in a pond, for that matter. I've certainly never caught a fish with a leech on it. All that being said, I know leeches are good for bait, not where I live, but in other places they use them. I think a WB imitates something good to eat for a fish, whatever that may be.

Gene, that's just it. I dont think most fisherman have to worry about perfectly imitating anything, the other day I was killing the bass and gills on a elk hair caddis in a still water pond in florida! It looks like a bug and that's all they care about. If it looks buggy and moves well it will catch fish period, heck I bet even that bugger with the stem tail will catch something! Some guys get too obsessed with proportions get it close and go fishing. Now you should always try to get better.

[Dave G. 0]

 

I know it imitates a leech, but I've never, ever seen a leech in a trout stream. Or even in a pond, for that matter. I've certainly never caught a fish with a leech on it. All that being said, I know leeches are good for bait, not where I live, but in other places they use them. I think a WB imitates something good to eat for a fish, whatever that may be.

Gene, that's just it. I dont think most fisherman have to worry about perfectly imitating anything, the other day I was killing the bass and gills on a elk hair caddis in a still water pond in florida! It looks like a bug and that's all they care about. If it looks buggy and moves well it will catch fish period, heck I bet even that bugger with the stem tail will catch something! Some guys get too obsessed with proportions get it close and go fishing. Now you should always try to get better.

 

My obsession is I really want my morning coffee to turn out right.

 

Bass and Bluegills aren't fussy fish though, that's true..

[mikechell 0]

I know it imitates a leech, but I've never, ever seen a leech in a trout stream. Or even in a pond, for that matter. I've certainly never caught a fish with a leech on it. All that being said, I know leeches are good for bait, not where I live, but in other places they use them. I think a WB imitates something good to eat for a fish, whatever that may be.

You've never seen any ... but there ARE leeches in those waters. Leeches are like earth worms (literally and figuratively), they're everywhere but you rarely see them.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I know it imitates a leech, but I've never, ever seen a leech in a trout stream. Or even in a pond, for that matter. I've certainly never caught a fish with a leech on it. All that being said, I know leeches are good for bait, not where I live, but in other places they use them. I think a WB imitates something good to eat for a fish, whatever that may be.

 

Wade a warmwater stream or pond for a few hours in shorts and you'll find the leeches--they'll be the little wormy things stuck to your legs.

[josephcsylvia 0]

If your lucky they'll only be stuck to your legs!!

[Dave G. 0]

The boys ( my sons) and I were wading in the Moose river up in Maine one spring maybe 20 years ago now, I kept getting fish on a purple leech pattern on this drizzly morning and they got a fish here or there using other flies. Got to be late morning, I want to say this was late May but a warm one for up there, and the clouds brightened up but the sun didn't quite break out. Anyway we were hungry for an early lunch and wading out of there, looked down in the water column , there were literally hundreds of long purple- to motor oil colored leeches in the water, hundreds of them 4-5 inches long. Never seen it before or since but you gotta know they are there. So it got to be at sunset on our trips up there that we changed over to purple or black leeches on sinking line to fish with in the last light of the day and into the darkness. Caught some corker fish too, lost some too, broke off. This is the time of year you expect the salmon to be on streamers and if you're lucky you might hit a BWO hatch, the caddis might be moving underwater a bit getting ready for the first early hatches but nothing serious for hatches of those just yet.

 

It was interesting to me, I had tied that leech pattern over the winter. I had seen leeches in the ponds up there in the spring and just wondered about the river, thought I'd give it a try. But while I wasn't surprised to get fish, I never expected to see ( witness) that kind of evidence LOL !

[fishinguy 0]

The tails seem to be the most obvious problem from what I'm seeing. Check out this previous thread on the subject for pointers. http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=72670

[Cold 0]

Two main issues: your tails are too long, and you're trimming your marabou and hackle tips.

 

For bugger tails, you will get one fly per feather. To paraphrase Ron Swanson, don't half-ass two flies, whole ass one. You're better off having one good fly than two with awkward clipped, trimmed marabou.

 

It's important what marabou you use, and for bugger tails, the blood quills are what you want. Pull the fibers down (dampen them if you like to make it easier), and measure along the shank for proper sizing. The tail should be between the length of the shank (eye to the start of the bend) and the length of the whole hook (eye to the back of the bend). Any shorter, you're robbing yourself of movement and profile, any longer, and you're running into fouling issues.

 

Contrary to most of the other responders, I don't think you've got too much material in your tails, just that the length makes it seem that way. I think if you choked up on those same feathers, your tails would look just fine. Then again, I do like a bit thicker tails, as they seem to perform better in the faster water I usually focus on. In more gentle currents, a sparser tail may be better.

 

Also, like your tail material, you shouldn't trim your body hackle. It really doesn't matter how long those fibers are, really. If you're just starting out and bought a pack of cheap strung saddle or neck feathers, your flies aren't going to look like the ones online or in books tied with a feather that the tyer chose from their hoard of dozens of pelts, specifically to look that way. Doesn't matter. Roll with what you've got but embrace the fact that it'll look different, and don't trim. Again, you're just robbing your fly of movement and appearance.

 

For my buggers, I tie in the tail (bind it along the entire shank), then tie in my hackle, at the bend, by the tip, with the fibers swept back. Then the chenille (stripping the material from the core at the tie-in point). Then I advance the thread up to the eye, wrap the chenille up and tie it off, wrap the hackle up and tie it off, then whip finish. This also gives me that nice reverse taper on the hackle barb length (assuming the feather has that taper), and allows me to use the best parts of the feather (closest to the tip, thinnest stem, and usually best taper and markings).

[utyer 0]

One point to remember as you continue to tie flies. No matter what someone tells you a fly imitates, that person is just saying what it looks like to US. NO fish EVER has said what the fly looked like to them. I have had some seriously long conversations with trout, and not one has ever had anything to say. If they are reacting to and striking your flies, that's all your gonna get, and that is really all you want.