{{start}}

a.k.a. Shuggie

This 'frog or dog nobler' type pattern by David Downey is a fusion of two flies.

The first was 'frog or dog nobler' variant tied by Loch Leaven anglers Jock Hodge and Dusty Miller. That fly had small bead chain eyes on top, a black body palmered with an olive hackle and a tail of black marabou with flat silver tinsel on top.

The second fly a Loch Gilly favourite was called the 'shimmy'. It also had the bead chain eyes on top and a tail of black marabou but differed from the first fly in that it had a silver body and for this fly the flat silver tinsel was under the marabou tail and a wing of marabou. Both were proven fish catchers.

The tie of my fly is very close to David Downey's fusion of those two flies which he describes as perhaps the best still water fly in the world.

I use it as a top dropper attractor and for that reason use a brass rather than a tungsten bead.

Particularly in water that is a little discoloured I am confident this fly brings a lot of fish to my team.

Materials

Hook	Head / weight	Thread	Flash	Tail	Rib	Body	Hackle
#8 Knapek streamer hook or something similar	Gold brass bead. If you need a heavier fly swap over to a tungsten bead.	Black 3/0 Uni thread	Flat gold tinsel	Black marabou	Medium silver wire	2mm gold estaz chenille	Grizzly cock hackle

Process

A	Most beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other. Slide a bead over the point of the hook small opening first and position it behind the eye of the hook. Wind the thread in touching turns from behind the bead to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in the flat gold tinsel as an under-tail which is about twice the length of the shank of the hook. I have used 12 strands of flat gold tibsel for the size #8 fly. This is a variation on my standard woolly bugger tail

B	Tie marabou in at the bend of the hook forming a tail on top of and as long as the gold tinsel under-tail. Tie in a length of copper wire.

C	Tie in a length of copper wire at the bend of the hook.

D	Tie in a length of estaz chenille along the top of the hook shank all the way down to the bend of the hook.

E	Wind the estaz chenille forward to just behind the bead. Tie the estaz chenille off with a couple of firm wraps of thread.

F	Trim away the excess estaz chenille. Select a woolly bugger type hackle and tie that in by the butt directly behind the bead. Woolly bugger hackles

G	Take two turns of the hackle behind the bead and then Palmer the hackle down the body of the fly to the bend of the hook creating 3 nor 4 segments along the body of the fly. Whilst holding the hackle in place at the bend of the hook with your left hand pick up the wire with your right hand and wind the wire forward forming just 3 or 4 segments along the body of the fly. Body segments on flies

H	Tie the copper wire off behind the bead and worry off the excess wire. Trim away the excess body hackle with a blade. Whip finish the thread behind the bead forming a narrow black thread collar. Trim away the excess thread and coat the collar of thread behind the bead with head cement.

{{end}}