Woolly Bugger

Woolly Bugger, Purple

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Tying Instructions

1. Attach a bead to the hook. Wrap a small piece of leadfree wire behind the bead. This will be pushed up into the bead cavity to help fill the void.

2. Secure the leadfree wire with thread wraps and bring the thread to the bend of the hook.

3. Tie in a marabou tail. The length should be equal to the shank.

4. Add four strands of Krystal Flash to the tail and another two longer strands at the tail tie-in position.

5. Tie in the Copper wire for ribbing and the chenille. The end of the Chennille should have the fuzz removed so that you anchor the chenille by the cord strands only to the shank.

6. Prepare a saddle hackle by folding the fibers so that they lay in a plane. This will give a nice sweep to the hackle fibers. Attach the hackle by the tip at the tail tie-in position.

7. Give a full wrap of the chenille behind the hackle tie in point, then wrap the chenille forward to just behind the eye. Lock in with a couple of thread wraps the trim the tag.

8. Palmer wrap the hackle forward to behind the eye. I ran out of hackle, no worry. We’ll attach another hackle for a collar. Anchor the butts of the material with a few thread wraps.

9. Wrap the ribbing forward, taking care not to catch some of the saddle hackle fibers.

10. Attach a second hackle by the butt for a collar.

11. Wrap the hackle 3-4 times and lock with a couple of thread wraps. Trim and secure with more thread wraps. Whip Finish.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 4-10 or TMC 9395, sizes 4-10
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Gold Bead
Hackle	Purple Saddle hackle palmered through body and two wraps behind the bead.
Body	Purple Chenille, medium
Ribbing	Copper wire with two strands Purple Krystalflash
Tail	Purple Marabou with 4 strands of Purple Krystalflash

Russell Blessing

Woolly Bugger

While the Woolly Bugger has it’s origins in older British Patterns, the Palmer and the “Tadpole Fly”, most attribute the origins of this fly to Russell Blessing of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the early 1970’s. Barry Beck promoted the fly and it has become one of the most popular streamer flies of our time.

Derivation of the Woolly Worm?

Jack Dennis has suggested that the Woolly Bugger origins are actually a U.S. Western derivation of the Woolly Worm pattern created by Don Martinez in the 1940’s. A group of fly fishermen using Martinez’ Woolly Worms substituted the Red Hackle tail with Red Marabou, calling the fly “Big Red” or Henry’s Lake Leech. If you don’t clip the palmered hackle, it closely resembles a Woolly Bugger.

Kids come up with the best names

In 1967, Russell Blessing added a Black Marabou tail to a Black hackled Olive chenille Woolly Worm. He used the fly for smallmouth bass, suspecting that it imitated a hellgrammite known as a Dobsonfly larvae. Barry Beck encountered Russell on the Little Lehigh River in Pennsylvania and found that the fly was extremely successful. Beck wrote an article on Blessing’s Wooly Bugger in 1984 and the fly became one of America’s most popular patterns. According to Blessing, the Woolly Bugger was inspired by another pattern known as the Blossom Fly and his daughter, Judy, came up with the name “Woolly Bugger”. Russell Blessing passed away in Oct of 2009 at the age of 74.

Presentation

The fly is fished as a streamer and probably imitates either baitfish or leeches. It can be used for stonefly and damselfly nymph imitations. Woolly Buggers can be tied in many colors: Brown, Black, Olive, Purple, Red, with various combinations. Dave Whitlock has suggested three main colors useful for deep-water or limited visibility situations:

• Black is your best all-around color for these conditions as it develops a good silhouette even under nighttime conditions.
• White works when there is any light available since it reflects the most.
• Yellow-Chartreuse is the last to lose it’s color-value in deep waters.

Simple to tie and one of the best

A very simple fly to tie, it is generally one of the first to learn. It can be weighted for stillwater purposes and trolled or stripped with a slight pulsating action. When used for baitfish imitations, the fly should be tied with a full marabou tail. On damsel and stonefly imitations, you can snip off half of the tail fibers. A few strands of Krystal Flash in the tail adds some reflectivity to the fly.

Variations

Variations of the pattern use different types of beadheads for the head. The body is often modified utilizing Crystal Chenille, Lite Brite, Peacock Herl, and Estaz Chenille. Rubberlegs can be added for additional action. Basically, the fly allows a multitude of different materials. What makes the fly defined as a bugger is (usually) a Marabou Tail with a body that has a palmered hackle wrapping it. Sometimes, this can get confusing, but remember the adage, “If it looks like a bugger, then it probably is.”

Variations

Olive Woolly Bugger

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 4-10
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Weight	0.020 Leadfree Wire
Hackle	Olive Saddle hackle palmered through body
Body	Olive Ultra Chenille, Standard
Ribbing	Copper wire with two strands Olive Krystalflash
Tail	Olive Marabou with 4 strands of Olive Krystalflash

Black Woolly Bugger

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 4-10
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Black Bead
Hackle	Black Saddle hackle palmered through body
Body	Black Chenille, medium
Ribbing	Copper wire
Tail	Black Marabou with 4 strands of Black Krystalflash

Brown Woolly Bugger

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 4-10
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Weight	0.020 Leadfree Wire
Hackle	Brown Saddle hackle palmered through body and two wraps Brown Saddle hackle behind head
Body	Brown Chenille, Large
Ribbing	Copper wire
Tail	Brown Marabou with 4 strands of Copper Wing N Flash

Little Olive Bugger

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 4-10
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Gold Bead
Weight	0.020 Leadfree Wire
Hackle	Olive dyed Grizzly Saddle Hackle palmered through body
Body	Olive Angora
Ribbing	Copper wire
Tail	Olive Grizzly Marabou with 4 strands of Olive Krystalflash