The Wolly Bugger is a great fly to start off with because it teaches you a couple different techniques. I'll try to briefly walk you through it.
1. Wind some lead onto the hook roughly 1/3 the hook shank back from the eye. Tie your thread onto the hook shank, secure the lead and wind rearward stopping above the hook barb.
2. Tie on some Marabou, not too much because you want it to "breath". It should be about 1/2 to 3/4 as long as your hook shank. Try to secure the Marabou at about the same spot, over the barb.
3. Tie in a length of Chenille, then tie in a hackle by the tip of the feather. This will give a nice tapered look to your fly when finished. Try to tie all materials in at the same spot (above the barb). Bring your thread forward stopping just behind the hook eye.
4. Wind chenille forward, covering the shank. Secure it about 2 eye lengths behind the eye, this will allow enough room to tie off your hackle and make a nice neat head.
5. Wind the hackle in such a manner that allow's enough space between wraps to allow the hackle barbs to "breath", this is called "Palmering". The hackle will naturaly find the grove between the chenille wraps which act like a spacer.
(A good way to learn this technique is to put a large wood screw on your bench and use it for reference when palmering your first bugger, pretend your trying to wind the hackle in between the groves on the wood screw)
6. Secure the hackle in front of the chenille and tie off with a whip finish or a couple half hitches. (If you properly choose your hackle, it should be just long enough to finish your last couple of palmered wraps with the webby part of the feather) Make 1-2 turns of hackle in front of the chenille (behind the hook eye) to complete the palmering. (Make sure you leave enough room to secure the hackle and tie off)
Cement head and your done.
That's how a Wolly Bugger is tied.
Surf the net, there are plenty of instructional sites out there with step by step instructions on gazillions of patterns.
So much for "briefly"
That's all,
E-Z MURF  |