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This fly has stood the test of time being designed in the 1930's as a cased caddis imitation in the Catskills by Cliff Zug. It continues to be relevant today on any water where caddis are relevant. It is equally at home in rivers and lakes. It's no surprise that the body is peacock herl a material that has made flies like the diawl back and prince nymph amongst the top fish taking flies.

I like to tie my zug bugs with a coloured head. The yellow head works particularly well when stick caddis are around early in the season and the red head version works well most of the time.

This jig version is particularly good for running water as the shape of the jig hook causes the leader to partially invert the fly mitigating snags as the fly bounces along the bottom.

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Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a tail consisting of 4 to 6 peacock sword barbules. The finished tail should be around 1.5 times the gape of the hook in length. Tie in a length of ribbing material along the top of the hook shank.

B	I like to add weight to my jig zug bugs because I want to be able to fish them bouncing along the river bed. Six wraps of .015 mm lead wire toward the middle of the fly is generally enough. Tie in several strands of peacock herl in along the top of the hook shank. I have tied in 4 strands for this size #10 fly .

C	Form the herl into a herl rope. Roping peacock herl Wind the herl rope between the bend of the hook and where the jig hook turns down toward the eye forming a thick cigar shaped body.

D	Trim the excess herl. Wind the ribbing material forward forming 4 or 5 body segments on the fly. Body segments on flies Take two final turns of the ribbing material in front of the body and then worry the excess wire off.

E	Woolly bugger type front 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. Two is generally plenty. Tie the feather off and trim the butt with a blade rather than scissors.

G	Stroke the front hackle back with the fingers of your left hand and tie it off witha couple of firm wraps of thread. If your going to make the thread head a different coloured thread swap over to that thread now.

H	Build up a neat thread head. Neat thread heads Whip finish, trim the thread and varnish the head.

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