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My first fish on fly fell to the magic of a Woolly Bugger and many have gone the same way since then.

My understanding is that the Woolly Bugger has its origins in America where it appears to be tied, as a leach imitation. having said that there is also an English fly with bead chin eyes called a Dog Nobler that is very similar to a traditional Woolly Bugger.  Whatever the name or origin this style of fly is a great fish taker in a wide range of conditions. There are probably more variations to the Woolly Bugger than I have had breakfasts. Some are over-dressed some under-dressed, some weighted other not, on all sorts of hooks and in all sorts of colour combinations. Most will work sometimes but many are "once of" flies that don't consistently take or attract fish.

I have tried out many over the years and now carry a range of  Woolly Buggers that have specific applications. In each case they have a reason for being and they have been proven over time to take or attract fish.

My basic tie for a Woolly Bugger is similar to so many others. Having said that I do have a few quirky criteria that I strictly adhere to every time I tie a Woolly Bugger.

The hook is a good starting point and whilst you can tie them on almost any hook it is worth giving the choice of hook a little consideration. One of the the key elements of the Woolly Bugger tie is a palmered hackle or in the case of some variants a fuzzeled body. On the wrong choice of hook the palmered hackle will act like a propeller spinning the fly and imparting twist into your line. Use a heavier hook that has enough weight at the business end to act like a keel. If your like me and use barbless hooks or crimp your barbs down consider a hook with a longer bite. You'll be surprised how much more holding power that a long bite on a hook imparts. Also when considering hooks I like a hook with a wide gape. I think the wider gape helps convert some of those bumps into hook ups. Finally and obviously make sure that you select hooks with sharp durable points. With these factors in mind I have a couple of hooks that I favour and all have heavier than standard wire, wide gapes and long bites. For standard size Woolly Buggers the hooks that I commonly use and fit that criteria are the Tiemco 3761 and 3769 and the Kamasan Long Lure B830. For my mini buggers I lean toward Knapek lure hook in size #10 because of the relative wider gape and longer bite.

The dressing of the tail is important. I like medium "bodied" marabou tails and target a tail that is about 1.5 times the length of the hook on my standard buggers. As long as you have tied enough body material and palmered hackle into the body of the fly (without overdressing it) you will find that as the fly moves through the water the body and particularly the palmered hackle will form currents that impart movement into the tail. Short tails don't move as much and if the tail is too long you may suffer short takes. I like marabou that is not stringy but has plenty of uniform flu on each marabou strand.

I generally add a little weight to my Woolly Buggers just to give them some negative buoyancy. Typically they are fished either as a single fly or as a point fly in a team of two or three flies and I always want a little weight there so that there is a better chance of being in direct contact with the fly. I admit that flies with no weight sometimes swim better but with no weight in the fly the slightest water or wind movement can introduce slack line and result in missed fish and even worse you may find your bugger floating on the surface which is not a good look. The amount of weight varies. Because I often use my 'mini' buggers for polaroiding I only weight them with 3 turns of .015 led wire. This ensures that they break the surface tension of the water and  sink at a slow realistic weight.   At the other end of the weight spectrum I swap over to tungsten beads on my 'river jigs' and 'collared buggers' because I fish them both in rivers and always want them to get down into the zone quickly. I also use these river jigs and collared buggers as "anchor buggers" when I want my leader straight when fishing a team of flies on rougher conditions. The idea of the collar on my collared nymphs is two fold. It adds an extra hot spot to the fly and the collar signifies to me that this fly is tied with a tungsten rather than the standard brass bead.

Brown woolly bugger

More often than not my first choice of Woolly Bugger to tie on will be a Brown Woolly Bugger. They fish well in a range of fisheries. They are very buggy looking and I believe they are taken for that reason as well as the fact that they can represent yabbies, mudeyes, small fish, leaches, large nymphs and a wide range of other food items. The tail is brown marabou, the body is made of peacock herl rope ribbed with fine copper wire and the hackle is brown.

Black woolly bugger

Regarded by many as the quintessential streamer, pulling or lure type fly. The Black Woolly Bugger that I carry has a tail that is the traditional black marabou. I have retained the palmered black hackle and segmentation with fine silver wire but I have replaced the traditional body of black chenille with roped peacock herl. Peacock herl is a great material and I believe it adds a great natural colour hue to the fly.

Olive woolly bugger

A lot of people swear by Olive Woolly Buggers but I only tend to use them when there is damsel fly or smelt activity around. With that in mind I tie them a little finer than most of my woolly buggers. The tail has a base of a few strands of red hackle covered by dark olive marabou, the body is tied out of peacock herl ribbed with fine copper wire and the hackle is dark olive.

Sparkle bugger

A variation on the standard black Woolly Bugger is the Black Sparkle Bugger. Its a great fly particularly for rainbows or when the water is a little discoloured. The tail is black marabou with a few strands of pearl flash, the body is made of 3mm black crystal chenille or sparkle fritz and is ribbed with fine silver wire and the hackle is black.

Black skirted woolly bugger

One of my favour early season still water flies this fly is dressed with a skit around a marabou tail. It is very adaptable and is a great way of tying tails of two colours of marabou or just adding a hot spot at the base of the tail which fish find very attractive. The skirt can be made of several materials but the best materials I have found for trout flies is marabou or rabbit fur. This is a concept that I like very much and can be applied to a range of popular woolly bugger type tails and streamer fly variations.

Olive skirted woolly bugger

Whilst not tied to imitate any natural food source it’s a very buggy looking fly with heaps of trigger points including the marabou tail, the soft body and front hackles as well a the skit itself. In particular I like to incorporate blood red or orange skirts which are suggestive in the case of a red skirt as  bleeding from around the base of the tail or the claws depending on what the fly is taken as  or in the case of an orange skirt as a fish roe.

Chatto's bibio bugger

I am not sure why but this smallish woolly bugger works well in detritus tannin stained water or water where fish tend toward midge feeding. Another fly that works well in those conditions is the bibio and it was from that observation that this bugger evolved.

Tassi bugger

Many years ago I read a book called "What Trout See". Trout of course see differently to us and it seems that their vision range is slightly askew of ours they are more focused on a spectrum of colours more focused around the ultra violet part of the spectrum worth violet being one of the last colours that they loose in low light. This fly take advantage of that and the purple or violet under tail and head apparently stand out in low light conditions created by depth, darkness and muddy water and are almost luminescent in brighter water.

Damsel bugger

One of the reasons for the Palmered hack or a front hackle on a bugger or bugger variant is to create currents around the fly so as to impart movement in the marabou tail. This fly takes advantage of that whilst preserving the slim profile of a damsel.

Black banded bugger

A similar fly to a Shrek or Bloody Mary this fly is distinguished by the bands of fuzelled seals fur and holographic tinsel along the full length of the body. This is a particularly good point fly early and late in the season when the browns and bows are getting ready to make their spawn run. Brown with red or gold tinsel as well as olive with green tinsel also work well.

Olive Banded bugger

A similar fly to a Shrek or Bloody Mary this fly is distinguished by the bands of fuzelled seals fur and holographic tinsel along the full length of the body. This is a particularly good point fly early and late in the season when the browns and bows are getting ready to make their spawn run. Brown with red or gold tinsel as well as olive with green tinsel also work well.

Brown banded bugger

A similar fly to a Shrek or Bloody Mary this fly is distinguished by the bands of fuzelled seals fur and holographic tinsel along the full length of the body. This is a particularly good point fly early and late in the season when the browns and bows are getting ready to make their spawn run. Brown with red or gold tinsel as well as olive with green tinsel also work well.

Blood bugger

New to my fly box I added this fly to my fly box as soon as I saw it. The red in the body and the tail are great triggers.

Flash Harry variant (Gold, silver, yellow, red and root beer versions)

My Flash Harry is one of those flies i’ll always give a swim, particularly if the water is a bit discoloured or if its windy and rough. I like to fish it on a fast sinking line either ripped or with a stop and start jerky retrieve or roly-poly. Chuck in plenty of pauses in your retrieve and make sure you hang the fly before recasting. This fly also fishes well across species and is attractive to Bass, EP’s, Silver Perch and Yellow Bellies as well as tout.

Magoo

Vern Barby's Magoo is a very special fly and a great variation of a woolly bugger. Vern designed this woolly bugger variation specifically for use in 'smelt' rich Lake Purumbeet in western Victoria. It's worth a swim in any water where 'smelt' whether they be Galixia, Gambesia or other small fish are on the trout's menu. In size #10 and #12 they are also good damsel imitations.

Orange bead head Magoo

One of just a couple of variations that work very well. The other is to use a colour scheme that leans more toward khaki or brown for those fisheries that lean more toward brown flies rather than olive flies.

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