The Woolly Bugger

There will not be many fly fishermen around that have not tried or at least heard of the Woolly Bugger. There are limitless variations of this pattern. The one pictured here is just my first attempt at its tying introduction featured in Charlie Craven’s book; I started tying them this weekend. As far as my experience with this pattern, the only thing that I can really say is that I have probably not fished it enough. There have been many occasions in which I was striking out with both dry flies and nymphs, but when I switched to a bugger, everything changed. It is certainly an effective weapon. Don’t let yourself be caught out on the rivers here in Colorado without at least a few of these in your fly box! In fact, I would carry them everywhere.

The Woolly Bugger