BirdTrout
Open the map
Woolly Worm
A terrestrial, tied #8–14, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — May–September.
- #8–14Hook size
- terrestrialType
- SummerSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 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.
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.
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.
| Hook | Long-shank hook, sizes 8–14 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 6/0 |
| Tail | Red wool, short |
| Body | Black or brown chenille |
| Hackle | Grizzly or brown, palmered the length of the body |
When to fish it
Under the surface rather than on it — a caterpillar that has been in the water a minute has sunk. Also fishes as a general nymph, which is why it has outlasted almost everything of its age.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active may–september, in water from 55°F to 75°F.
Target species
- Trout
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.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Black Foam Ant terrestrial · #14–20 — Floats low, which is how a real ant sits. Small water, tight to the bank.
- Foam Inchworm terrestrial · #12–16 — A length of bright green foam and nothing else. Cast tight to overhanging hardwood; the natural arrives from above, not from upstream.
- Black Cricket terrestrial · #10–14 — Late summer into October, after the hoppers thin out.
- Dave's Hopper terrestrial · #8–12 — Deer hair and legs. The classic, and it lands with the right kind of thud.
- Foam Beetle terrestrial · #12–18 — Black foam, a bit of flash on top. The most reliable summer dry on wooded streams.