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This tungsten bead head / cul de canard river bugger is one of a series of 6 bugger variants that I carry in my trout river fly box. They are all very buggy looking flies that lend themselves to being swung down and across shallow water or to being swum down where the fish are holding in deeper pools. They also work well in a two fly Euro Nymph style team generally on the point below a heavier nymph. With a marabou tail and a CDC front hackle they swim with plenty of movement enhancing their buggy appearance and of course the use of jig hooks mitigates snags on the bottom terrain.

I carry this fly and my other river jig buggers in two sizes:
Size #12 which carries a 3.0mmm faceted slotted tungsten bead
Size #10 which carries a 3.5 mm faceted slotted tungsten bead

A

Materials

Process

A	Jig hook beads are available in a great cross section of sizes and colours and in a smooth surface as in the photo or a faceted surface. Like normal fly tying beads they come with a thin opening and a wide opening at the other. The wide opening on jig beads is however slotted so that you can manoeuvre the bead over jig hook bend. Slide the bead onto the hook shank thin opening first all the way to behind the eye of the hook. Setting the bead on the hook doesn't finish there and you need rotate the bead round behind the eye of the hook so the slot sits comfortably just above the top of the hook shank. I like to lock the bead into that position with a drop of super glue.

B	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Tie in a marabou tail 1.5 to 2 times the length of the hook. Tie in a length of wire at the bend of the hook.

C	Build up a cigar shaped body from the bend of the hook to behind the bead.

D	Wind the wire forward forming 4 or 5 segment on the body of the fly. Body segments on flies Take one extra wrap of the wire behind the bead and then worry off the excess wire. Using a section of Velcro tease out dubbing fibres evenly around the body of the fly. This is a great alternative to Palmering a hackle down the body of many flies.

E	Tie in a hackle, by the tip, directly behind the bead. Woolly bugger hackles

F	Trim off the tip of the feather where it is tied in. Take two or three turns of the feather in the gap you left between the body and the eye of the hook. Tie the feather off and trim the butt with a blade rather than scissors. Load your thread with a tiny bit of dubbing.

G	Stroke the front hackle back with the fingers of your left hand and wind the dubbing rope between the bead and the hackle forcing it slightly backwards. Whip finish behind the bead. Varnish the whip finish and the bead. If you don't varnish the bead some of them tarnish quite quickly. The overall length of these mini bugger should only be between 30 and 35 mm.

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