The Joy of Fly Tying: Wooly Bugger

The next fly we are going to learn in my Joy of Fly Tying series is the Wooly Bugger. The Wooly Bugger is one of the most delicious looking flies you can fish with, at least according to the fish. Of all the species of fish I have caught in my life, most of the biggest of each species was caught on a Wooly Bugger. There's just something about the buggy-looking saddle hackle and the titillatingly wavy marabou tail that has the ability to drive fish crazy. This is one of the most important flies to carry in your arsenal.

You can tie Wooly Buggers in any color scheme you can think of. For trout I like to carry them in brown, olive, black, silver, yellow, and one of my favorites is a variegated brown and tan and olive Bugger that I have called the Mushroom & Swiss Bugger. Panfish love yellow and chartreuse, amongst other colors. Bass like big Buggers in silver and chartreuse. My largest smallmouth bass was caught on a rusty colored Wooly Bugger which the big ol' bass may or may not have mistaken for a crayfish. I didn't think to ask him... I have often heard that all white Wooly Buggers can be very effective for an assortment of species, but I have never caught anything on one. You could even tie big Wooly Buggers in red and white or red and yellow color combinations for pike. There are no limits when it comes to Wooly Buggers, and I am pretty sure any color combo will catch something at some point in time.

Mushroom & Swiss Bugger

I put beads on 100% of the Wooly Buggers I tie for myself, but I don't have my students use beads until later on in class. So the Wooly Bugger in the video will be beadless. In the first fly of the class we tied a Rubber Legged Spider, which is a pretty basic fly that allows students to learn how to tie materials on the hook, how to start the thread, and how to tie off the thread. The Wooly Bugger adds to those skills with the ability to measure tails, wrap lead wire, wrap body materials and ribbing, and how to size and wrap hackle. That's a lot of new skills! Let's watch how to tie one!

Wooly Bugger Pattern Recipe
Hook: Any 2X or 3X long streamer hook. The Tiemco 5263 is a good choice
Thread: 6/0, color to match the body
Weight: 8-12 wraps of lead wire
Tail: Marabou of any color you choose
Rib: Fine wire
Body: Medium chenille, any color you choose
Hackle: Saddle hackle sized for the hook