Woolly Bugger Tute

 

Wooly Bugger Tute

Wooly Buggers are one of the easiest streamers to tie. They can be dead drifted, stripped in and even jigged to entice fish to bite. They will catch many different species of fish depending on the size they are tied in. The colors are endless and I’m sure there are many ways to tie them.
  Following are the best colors I’ve used to catch trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass as well as steelhead and pan fish. You will see I use weighted wire around the hook shank. This gives my buggers the added weight to get down quickly without having to add split shots, unnecessarily, to the leader/tippet that may cause weakness on the crimped line.
  Buggers represent anywhere from bait fish to dobsonfly nymphs as well as drifting crayfish or hellgrammites and anything that looks edible in between.
  I tie 98% of my buggers on #10 Mustad hooks. I’m not much for a lot of flash in my buggers as I feel they scare the fish in clearer water. Just enough in the tail to shimmer and draw attention. The same basic directions are used whether using a bead head or not.

DT’s Wooly Bugger Tute

Hook: Mustad 9672 #10
Thread: Olive #6
Weight: .030 lead or lead free wire
Tail: Two Olive Marabou Blood Quills
Tail flash: Krystal Flash
Rib: Webby barred olive saddle hackle feather
Body: Medium olive chenille
Head: Thread wrapped (bead optional)

1. Base thread the hook shank. Let thread rest so it is just in front of the hook point.

2. Starting just in front of the thread counter wrap the lead wire forward leaving space before the hook eye.

2a. Wind a few wraps of thread around the weight and return the thread to the hook bend.

3. I like to trim the finer tips off the marabou on my olive buggers.

4. Measure marabou tail a little longer than the length of the overall hook length.

 

5. Tie in marabou tail butt up against the start of the lead wire. This will keep the body of the fly uniform.

6. Take three strands of Krystal flash and, bending in the middle, tie down just in front of the tail, extending back so three strands are on each side of the marabou.

 

7. Tie in hackle feather for rib. Again, keep this tied down behind lead wraps.

 

8. Tie in chenille. For a chubby body tie in the full length of the hook shank leaving room before eye. For a thinner body, tie off before lead wraps.

 

9. Wind chenille tightly towards eye one wrap in front of the other. Tie down and trim tagged end.

 

10. Palmer hackle feather, over chenille, towards eye leaving gaps between wraps. Trim off excess.

11. Finish head with thread and add head cement. I use a hollow brass tube to guide thread wraps over hook eye to finish off head.Wind thread around tube twice and then guide over hook eye.

Finished Bugger

For bead head bugger.
Add bead and than follow instructions above.
I'll use .020 lead wire for bead head buggers.

 

Here are some of my common Woolly Buggers shown wet. You can see how the marabou shinks down but still giving the bugger a nice full figure.