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 trouts menu. In size #10 and #12 sizes they are also good damsel imitations.

Materials

Hook Weight Thread Tail Rib Body Body  hackle Front hackle
#8 to #12 Knapek lure 3.2 mm or #2.7 mm brass bead in orange or gold Olive Marabou + flash Fine copper wire Peacock herl Hen hackle Olive partridge

Process

A
  1. 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.
  2. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.
  3. If your going to add extra weight do that now. I don't add extra weight to my Magoos.
  4. Tie in a tail as long as the marabou you have will allow. On a #8 Knapek lure hook the tail is 4 x as long as the hook. Resist the temptation to make the tail too bulky or too short.
  5. Tie in just 2 or 3 strands of emerald rainbow sparkle flash on each side of the tail.
  6. Tie in a length of copper wire.

B
  1. Tie in a number of peacock hearls, form them into a rope and wind the rope forward in touching turns to the bead forming a uniform body.
  2. Tie the herl rope off and trim the excess.
  3. Select a body hackle with barbules about as long as the gape of the hook.
  4. Hold your hackle with the shiny side forward and peal away the barbules off the bottom side of the hackle.
  5. The remaining one sided hackle is then tied in with the stripped side of the hackle at the bottom.
  6. By following these steps you will ensure that the remaining barbules of the hackle slope slightly backward as you wind the hackle back along the body of the fly.

C
  1. Palmer the hackle down the body to the bend of the hook creating 3 nor 4 segments along the body of the fly.
  2. 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.
  3. Tie the copper wire off behind the bead and worry off the excess wire.
  4. Tie the copper wire off behind the bead and worry off the excess wire.
  5. Trim the butt end of the hackle with a blade.
  6. Select a front hackle that has barbels that are around 1.5 times as long as the gape of the hook.
  7. Tie a hackle in by the tip. Selection of the hackle is often made difficult by what is available. The original recipe calls for an olive partridge but olive guinea foul or hen hackle etc. can be used.

D
  1. Trim the tip of where the hackle is tied in.
  2. Take just two or three full turns of the hackle directly behind the bead head and secure it in place with a few wraps of thread.
  3. Stroke the hackle tips back along the fly and then finish securing the hackle in that position with additional wraps of thread.
  4. Whip finish behind the bead head, trim the thread and varnish the thread behind the bead and the bead itself. If you don't varnish the bead, if its a brass unpainted bead, it will tarnish quite quickly.



Last Updated: February 5, 2011
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Categories: Flies, Woolly buggers & variants
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