PATTERN: WOOLY BUGGER

Doesn’t matter where you fish, what you are fishing for, or what the conditions are—it works! Steelhead, trout, salmon, bass, pike…anything. Can be tied in just about any color combination. Black and olive are two of the most popular colors.

Materials Required:
~ 4x Streamer hook size 8
~ Black thread
~ Black marabou
~ Black neck or saddle hackle
~ Olive chenille

Find it all in Tying Materials

1. Place the hook in your vise and start the thread at the back end of the hook. Trim the excess tag end of the thread. Wrap the thread forward, covering the hook with thread to form a thread base.

2. Select a marabou feather. Measure its length by holding the feather along the hook shank. Make sure the tail of the fly will be one to no more than one and a half times the length of the hook shank. Trim the marabou feather so it ends behind the hook eye.

3. Attach the marabou feather to the hook with several thread wraps. Wind thread backwards tying the feather down tightly to hook shank. Stop at bend of hook.

4. Select a Saddle Hackle feather. Hold by the tip. Stroke down feather to splay out fibers. Fibers should be no longer than twice the width of the hook gap. Tie feather in by the tip with the shiny side facing forward. 

5. Take a 4" piece of chenille and pull the fibers off the end, exposing the thread inside the piece of chenille. Tie in your four inch piece of chenille right at the end of your marabou tail.

6. Wind body material forward in touching turns. Stop your wind at one hook eye width and tie off and snip the waste.

7. Now grab the Saddle Hackle feather by the butt end and wind forward. Wrap in between each turn of the chenille. Wrapping a feather in this manor is referred to as palmering. Wrap the feather to the front of the chenille and complete one wrap at the end of the body. Tie off feather with several firm wraps. Snip off waste of feather.  

8. Continue to wrap thread and build up a head for your fly. Add three half hitch knots, trim the thread and add a drop of head cement—being sure to cover the thread all the way around the head of the fly.