BirdTrout Open the map

Woolly Bugger (Black)

A streamer, tied #2–12, carried year round. It is tied against 5 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year.

A black streamer of marabou and chenille that reads as a leech, a sculpin, a big nymph, or none of them at all. It is tied on a 3X long streamer hook in sizes 2 through 12 with black 6/0 thread: a black marabou tail with a few strands of Krystal Flash through it, a black chenille body, black saddle hackle palmered the length of that body, and lead wire or a cone head for weight. The marabou breathes at rest and the palmered hackle pulses on the strip, which is most of why the fly works across so many roles. It is tied here against the giant black stonefly, Pteronarcys dorsata, in May and June from 50 to 62 degrees, and the sculpin, Cottus spp., available all year from 33 to 72, and it also stands in when nothing is hatching. Fished any way at all — stripped, swung, dead-drifted under an indicator — for trout, smallmouth bass and steelhead, in every season.

What it looks like

A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 4 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 6 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.

Half of it is tail. The marabou breathes and folds on the pause and the palmered hackle keeps the body's outline soft, which is why it passes for a leech, a sculpin or a big nymph without being any of them. Drawn at #8 — 23.3 mm of shank and 7.0 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.
#2#4#6#8#10#1210 mm
The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 2 will differ a little.

What it imitates

Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.

It is also tagged for no hatch at all — a searching pattern.

Tying recipe

In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook3X long streamer hook, sizes 2–12
ThreadBlack 6/0
TailBlack marabou, with a few strands of Krystal Flash
BodyBlack chenille
HackleBlack saddle, palmered the length of the body
WeightLead wire or a cone head

When to fish it

Fish it any way at all — stripped, swung, dead-drifted under an indicator. It is a leech, a sculpin, a big nymph, or none of them.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 78°F.

Target species

Rivers it fishes well

Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.