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It doesn't matter if your fishing saltwater or freshwater, targeting demersal or pelagic fish or that your target fish is feeding on mullet, garfish, herring, bony bream, hardyhead or some other baitfish ... at 13cm long and with a great swimming action more often than not my articulated bugger in Qantas colours is my goto fly.

It has its origins in the hundreds of woolly bugger and woolly bugger variants that I have tied and fished over many years.

During that period my trout fishing exploits including representing Australia at World, Commonwealth, Oceania International Championships and National Championships, and my Central Queensland exploits over the last 10 years or so where I successfully target 38 different species ranging from bream to barra ... and the list is growing.

I tie it in just tree different colour combinations as described below.

Qantas articulated bugger

As you have seen from many of my other big fish fly posts red and white combinations, popularly referred to as Qantas colours, are probably the best search colours for flies, soft plastics and hard bodied lures in the fresh and salt water fisheries of Central Queensland and so many other locations ... there always worth a swim.

Garfish articulated bugger

I started making soft plastics in gar fish colours about a year ago in response to identifying that a lot of the buffing of big barramundi that you hear at dusk and into the night is barra targeting garfish. I have now added gar fish inspired colouring to my articulated bugger range and have found that to be a great dawn and dusk time fishing colour combination.

Brown bomber inspired articulated bugger

Not far behind Qantas colours for hard body lure colour popularity in Central Queensland are brown bomber colour inspired lures. My brown bomber inspired articulated bugger is the fly I default to when fishing falling tides around mangroves.

Process

A	Wind the thread in tight touching turns from behind the eye of the hook all the way down to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks

The under-tail consists of a layer of flash blend. Target a finished tail that is 1.25 the overall length of the hook.

B	Clip a bunch of flash blend off the hank and tie that in on top of the hook shank. Make sure there is enough facing over the rear and the front of the hook to form a body that is 1.25 times the length of the hook. Managing synthetic fibers

C	Fold the forward facing flash blend back on top of the rear facing flash blend and lock that into place with firm wraps of thread. Tie in a couple of half hitches to make sure the flash blend is locked in that position. Half hitches by hand

The over-tail consists of a layer of marabou. Target a finished tail that is 1.25 the overall length of the hook. You may have to compromise the length of the over-tail a little, as in the olive version above, if you don't have marabou long enough for the target tail length.

D	Select a couple of marabou feathers that have long and full enough barbules to match the volume of flash blend tied in in step "B & C". Tie the marabou feathers in at the bend of the hook.

E	Trim the excess butt ends of the marabou and then cover the but ends with afirm wraps of thread. Tie in a couple more half hitches to make sure the marabou is locked in that position. Take the thread back to the bend of the hook.

The body of the trailing hook consist of Far North Ffrozen Jelly Chenille.

F	Tie in a length of FNF jelly chenille at the bend of the hook. Take the thread forward to behind the eye of the hook.

G	Wind the chenille forward from the bend of the hook to behind the eye of the hook in tight touching turns.

You'll see below that the bead head eyes are tied below the shank of the trailing hook to lower the flies center of gravity and cause it to swim better and by having the offset eye of the shank facing up there is more room to tie the fly on.

The articulated shank needs a colar of palmer chenille to camofague the join between the trailing hook and the articulated shank, weight at the front of the trailing hook to make it swim head down and a little volume behind the hackle to create some cavitations around to keep the marabou in the tail working.

I	Place the fly into the vice by locking the articulated shank into the vice by the rear eye of the articulated shank. Build up a bed of thread on the first quarter of the articulated shank. Put a drop of superglue toward the back of the bed of thread.

J	Select a set of dumbbell eyes. My preference is Spirit River 3/16 or 7/32 dumbbell eyes with red iris and black pupil. Rotate the hook in the vice and using tight figure of eight wraps tie in a set of dumbbell eyes in behind the eye of the articulated shank. Tying in dumbbell eyes

K	Continue winding the thread in tight touching turns to just in front of the rear eye of the articulated shank. Rotate the hook in the vice 180 degrees back to its original position.. Select a length of palmer chenille and tie that in on top of the articulated shank.

L	Wind the palmer chenille forward 7 or 8 tight turns taking care to stroke the barbules of the palmer chenille backward between each turn ... it helps to whet you finger whilst doing that. Take the thread forward to just behind the void in the articulated shank and take a couple of half hitches in the thread so that everything is tight.

M	Tie in a length of FNF jelly chenille directly in front of the palmer chenille.

N	Apply a drop of super glue to the tie in of the jelly chenille and then wind the jelly chenille forward to half way along the void in the articulated shank. Tie the chenille off with tight wraps of thread and a couple of half hitches and trim away the excess. Select a marabou feather that has barbules which are at least long enough so that when they are laid back they can be pinched down to sit neatly above the palmer chenille collar and tie that in by its tip.

O	Wind the marabou hackle forward, in tight touching turns taking care to stroke the hackle barbules back between each turn. Tie the hackle off directly behind the dumbbell eyes, trim away the excess thread, whip finish behind the dumbbell eyes and apply a coat of head cement or super glue to the whip finish. Once the head cement or super glue has dried methodically pinch off the tips of the hackle around the fly so that the hackle extends down the body of the fly the same distance as the palmer chenille.

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