October FOTM - The Wooly Bugger

[Stephen Bradbury]

The October FOTM is the 'Wooly Bugger', this is one of the most popular freshwater flies around the world. This fly is one of the original ‘Wet’ (sub-surface) flies used primarily for Trout and other freshwater species in rivers, streams and lakes, but can also be used in our saltwater estuary systems for Bream. It is a very effective fly for species such as Rainbow trout, Brown trout, Redfin perch, Silver perch, Aus Bass, Estuary perch, European carp, Koi carp, Tilapia, Black bream, Yellowfin bream, grunter etc. The Wooly Bugger is basically designed to represent a small baitfish, leech or large nymph stage of an insect like a Dragonfly and is mostly tied with a weighted brass bead head to get down in the water column where the fish are or unweighted often for Stillwater fishing. Usually tied in olive or black there are many other variations out there these days that are tied using variegated materials and even with the addition of a hot spot. The Marabou tail on this pattern has great natural movement in the water aided my tiny micro currents caused by the palmered hackle body. This is a must have wet fly to have in your freshwater box for Trout and Carp in my opinion.

Recipe – in order of tying
Hook – size 10# - 6# Tiemco TMC 5263 (my preferred hook) or Daiichi.
Bead head – Brass bead in 5/32 weight usually threaded onto hook and positioned hard up to the hook eye.
Weight – (optional) 0.2 lead wire wrapped around the hook shank (8 to 10 wraps). Push wire wraps up along hook shank into the bead head.
Thread – 140 denier Ultra thread in black, olive, dark olive, brown olive or light olive colour. Start thread off at the rear of the lead wire wraps.
Tail – one small bunch of Marabou (preferably blood quills with tips pulled off) roughly about 1.5 x the length of the hook, tied in on top of the hook shank about 1/2 way back to the hook bend, tie in back to in line with the barb.
Flash – (optional) 4 x short strands of Krystal flash, pearl, olive or gold (2 x each side of tail).
Under body – A length of rayon chenille black, a shade of olive, variegated or even some supa salt chenille if you want to add a bit more flash. Tied in behind the bead head then bound (with thread) back to the marabou tail, then wrapped back along the hook shank and tied off behind the bead head.
Body – Palmered hackle (feather) the width of the hackle should be roughly 2 x the hook gape. It can be a plain colour or grizzly. Tie in the hackle behind the bead head, advance the thread back to the tail, then palmer the hackle back to the tail and tie off. Work the thread back over the body back to the bead head (without trapping too many of the hackles) and whip finish.


The Wooly Bugger is usually fished on a 4 - 10lb fluorocarbon tippet depending on the target species, with small slow strips.

[Stephen Bradbury]

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