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Fast Water No-Frills Woolly Bugger
By Lance Pardue

How can you possibly have enough Woolly Buggers? I have a single fly box with a swing leaf dedicated to them. I have them weighted and unweighted. Brown, olive, black, and purple. I've caught fish on them in rivers and lakes. Dead-drifted, swung, deep and shallow - it has a time and place in every freshwater situation. Here are the basic steps (Kaufmann style) for tying a no-frills Wolly Bugger. No flash, beads, cones, rubber legs, or any other extravagance. Just a Woolly Bugger.

In this example I've chosen a heavy gauge hook, and I'm going to tie it heavily dressed. More appropriate for swift river fishing than for still water. For still water applications - try it less weighted and sparser.

Step 1 Put the hook in the vice. Wrap some weight around the hook. More weight depending on depth and water speed. Leave enough room up front for a thread head, and don't go past the hook point in the rear. This example shows the maximum amount of weight that can be used for a properly tied fly. Lash the weight down tight so it doesn't spin under the other materials.

Step 2 Tie in a marabou tail. The tail should be almost as long as the body of the fly itself. The best bugger tails are from the tips of a marabou feather. Lash it down over the weight to round out the body of the fly. Tie it off around the hook tip.

Step 3 Prepare the Chenille. You do this using your finger-nail to strip the extra material from the core threads at the center of the Chenille. Leave a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of core threads and tie the chenille in just in front of the tail. Also tie in the tinsel ribbing. Its hard to see but this picture is flat tinsel tied in just behind the chenille. The tinsel ribbing in important because it will make the fly more durable. Without it, one break in the hackle and the whole hackle unravels.

Step 4 Wrap the chenille over the body of the fly, back to front. This thickens the body and gives it some bulk. The chenille in this image is a little smashed and uneven - but you get the picture. I like to use variegated chenille - especially with grizzly hackle - for an extra buggy look.

Step 5 Prepare a saddle hackle. This image shows a properly prepared hackle - with the last few feather fibers stripped from the feather quill - leaving a convenient place to tie the feather in. Tie the hackle in just behind where the head of the fly will be.

Step 6 Wrap the hackle back to the tail of the fly. Make sure to do it evenly, like the stripes on a candy cane. Hold the hackle at the end of the fly with one hand - and then wrap the tinsel ribbing forward over the hackle - holding it in place. Tie off the tinsel. Trim the excess hackle from the back end of the fly - and the excess tinsel from the front.

Step 7 Whip finish, and wrap a nice thread head. Give it a generous shot of head cement. Tie a bunch more in lots of sizes and colors. You WILL use them.

Click photos to enlarge

Products for this fly:
•	Wooly Bugger Marabou
•	Whiting Bugger Packs
•	Tiemco TMC 5262 Hooks
•	Wapsi Veriegated Chenille
•	Uni 6/0 Tying Thread
•	French Tinsel

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