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Hello It's Kristi here!!

Ok by now I'm assuming...

 

Everyone has had an opportunity to gather tools, supplies and materials ... ( we don't need anything too fancy! ) I'm also assuming that we all have tried playing with our tools and materials and looking on YouTube for videos and/or at books on where and how to start. And assuming that you all have been waiting patiently :whootwhoo: for me to get rollin' on this topic. So I apologize for being sooooo late.

 

​Last I spoke about the BASIC materials we will need to tie a Woolly Bugger. This pattern is great to use in the spring months and fall months. DID YOU KNOW that there are several ways to spell wholly bugger.. You’ll see me use different spellings, that or I can't spell LOL

Gather your materials and tools, and let’s get started.

 

For this pattern we will need:

 

· Streamer Hook: 3XL-4XL sizes #2-#14 ​​

 

· Thread: 3/0 or 6/0 - [ match colour to body

 

· Tail: Long Marabou, the colours you use is up to you any colours are allowed!! but I generally recommend sticking with reds, burgundy’s, onyx, olives, browns your earthy natural colors.- [ I will use an onyx (black)

 

· ​Body: Large chenille, colour of your choice -[ I am using burgundy and or wine Crystal Chenille

 

· Hackle: Wet fly saddle hackle - [ I will match my tail using onyx​

 

***NOTE*** I WILL ALWAYS LIST THE MATERIALS IN ORDER OF THE WAY THEY NEED TO BE used and or TIED IN. And as you advance you will find your own way that works for you.

Thank you to Michael Dell for taking lots of pictures as I tied. I posted pictures in each step! There are more pictures to refer to after the detailed step by step instructions and all these pictures will coincide with all the steps mentioned in this article below of how to tie a Wholly Bugger. HAPPY TYING!!

 

 

1. Mounting your hook: in the vice is simple.. Pinch barb first with flat needle nose pliers. Keep the shank horizontal, and or parallel to the table. Clamp firmly. post-2083-0-42414100-1525674356_thumb.jpg The eye of the hook should not be any higher or lower than the shank itself. ***Larger hooks take more vise grip than smaller hooks so you'll have to play around with the tension of your vise. *** don’t worry if your eye is offset to the shank of the hook in design. We will talk about down eye, up eye or straight eye hooks later. *** DO NOT hide the hook point in the jaws of your vise as this can weaken the hook and result in lost fish upon the setting of the hook. You don't want to Lose the "BIG :swimmingking: ONE" because you didn't secure your hook correctly*** you may want to pre pinch your barb before mounting the hook into your vise. This can be easier than pinching while set in the vise.

2. D​ressing the hook:post-2083-0-82620900-1525674766_thumb.jpg takes some practice and all it is, is this: pre-wrapping the shank with some thread. (this holds our materials in place securely) Hold your bobbin in your R hand (bobbin hand) and the tag in your L hand (tag hand). TAG: loose end of thread. Take your L hand with tag and place it behind the hook, just behind the eye. Holding the tag close to shank on the backside of the hook, keep your R hand/bobbin hand in front of hook and wrap the bobbin away from you while holding the tag end. post-2083-0-72618800-1525674527_thumb.jpg Be sure to advance the thread towards the bend of the hook, catching the tag end in under your wraps. (always wrapping away from you) continue over the tag keeping the tag in your left hand secure; wrap the bobbin away covering the tag until you no longer can hold it, or until your dressing seems secure enough that the thread wraps will not loosely rotate on the hook. Trim tag end.post-2083-0-60765000-1525674670_thumb.jpg These wraps should be nicely spaced or touching wraps. (Overlapping will happen when we advance thread forward towards the eye of the hook wrapping away from us, and continue wrapping away from us advancing the thread back to the bend of the hook using your evenly spaced or back to back thread wrap technique.) Again advance the thread back towards the eye of the hook being sure to stop 1/4 of the hook length behind the eye.

3. Adding materials: now that the hook is dressed. "Hooks don't like being naked!!" :laugh: Select your Marabou feathers and pull them off in a clump from the quill, trim off any firm pieces that may have been left behind. post-2083-0-75244100-1525675241_thumb.jpg Pinch and hold Marabou in center of clump being sure to lay it in 1/4 (one quarter of the length of the hook shaft away from the eye) away from the eye with the tag hand hold clump against the top of the hook shaft firmly post-2083-0-84381000-1525675385_thumb.jpg wrap the thread around the Marabou being sure you wrap away from you while advancing the thread down towards the hook bend and around the Marabou, using controlled wraps secure Marabou to hook shank firmly. ( another way to tie this in is by tying the entire stem in ) Next continue wrapping away from you and advance the thread back to the bend of the hook. post-2083-0-63955700-1525675925_thumb.jpg post-2083-0-79292300-1525676182_thumb.jpg STOP right at the barb that pointy thing we pinched down earlier... Now; when our bobbin is not in use or at rest it should always hang on the backside of the vise. ( If you ever see your bobbin hanging in front, the thread lying over the hook shank in front of you, not behind the hook shank away from you) you may have wrapped the wrong way! we can discuss this after we have finished.​

4. Adding materials: now that the marabou is secured we are ready to add Chenille. Select your Chenille and tie it in at the bend of the hook, using the two threads that bind and create the Chenille. post-2083-0-46057900-1525676232_thumb.jpg (to expose the threads you can remove the Chenille fibers so that you have 1/8th of an inch of string showing) post-2083-0-23689500-1525676309_thumb.jpg Hold the Chenille at the tie in point and wrap your thread twice around to secure the Chenille in place.

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5. Adding materials: now that the chenille is secured we are ready to add the Hackle. ​Select the longest piece of Hackle you can find and tie the butt end of the Hackle into the tie in point wrapping your thread twice firmly leaving your hackle and chenille to rest at the hook bend, post-2083-0-70626300-1525676426_thumb.jpg ( another way to tie in the hackle is to tie in the tip and we will look at that later in another pattern or variant of the woolly bugger ) before advancing your thread forward towards the eye of the hook, stop at two eye lengths behind the eye. post-2083-0-82912300-1525676708_thumb.jpg ( for educational reasons I use a 1/3 portion so that the picture directions were clear I also used wide spaced wraps and orange thread for visual contrast) Let your bobbin hang (rest).

6. Putting your fly together: post-2083-0-98400700-1525676481_thumb.jpg now we can create our amazing fly, :monkey: this process is fairly simple and straight forward if you follow the directions. Take your Chenille post-2083-0-86838000-1525676772_thumb.jpg using your bobbin hand wrap the Chenille away from you advancing it toward the eye of the hook firmly but not too strongly wrap the Chenille with touching wraps, stop when you get to where the resting bobbin is. Now transfer the Chenille to the tag hand and pick up the bobbin with your bobbin hand and wrap twice behind the Chenille and twice in front of the Chenille.post-2083-0-76233300-1525676925_thumb.jpg ( I don't switch my product from my hands now but when I first started I did and I recommend it for the starter as it gives you base skills for other techniques needed later in tying) Doing this locks the Chenille in place and prevents it from unraveling. Let your bobbin rest again. And trim the Chenille as close to the hook shank as possible being sure not post-2083-0-81312600-1525676972_thumb.jpg to cut the bobbin thread!! Now pick up the Hackle post-2083-0-03865400-1525676999_thumb.jpg and wind that between the wraps of the chenille, you’ll find that the Hackle will fall into place and be fairly easy to wrap. Again using firm tension but not pulling too hard (we don’t want to break our Hackle off) wrap the Hackle away post-2083-0-45493500-1525677022_thumb.jpg from you advancing it forward toward the eye of the hook stop where the bobbin is resting. Hold the Hackle in your bobbin hand and pick up your bobbin with your tag hand and wrap the Hackle two times behind,post-2083-0-08839300-1525677112_thumb.jpg switch your hands so that the Hackle is in your tag hand and the bobbin is in your bobbin hand and wrap two times securely again locking the feather in place. Let the bobbin rest and trim the tip of the Hackle. LOOKING GOOD!!! And we are almost done.

7. Creating the Head of the fly: post-2083-0-79576600-1525677167_thumb.jpg(for educational and visual reasons I used an oversized hook, and orange thread so you could see clearly what was being done I also purposely used bigger proportions than what is suggested.) Creating the head of the fly is just that...post-2083-0-79963100-1525677228_thumb.jpg Wrapping the thread away from you building a nicely shaped head in a cone shape. Once this is finished we finish the fly off with a whip finish….. Yes I said whip finish lol :blink2:

8. Whip Finish: Take your whip finish tool and hold it in your bobbin hand take your bobbin and hold it in your tag hand. post-2083-0-75334800-1525677278_thumb.jpg Put the whip finisher behind the thread (the pointed hook part of the whip finisher.) **The thread should actually be able to hang freely inside** post-2083-0-84249500-1525677301_thumb.jpg with your tag hand pull the thread over the portion that looks like the bobby pin end. post-2083-0-58189700-1525677436_thumb.jpg ( I always hope this works for me ) Now… hold the whip finisher loosely and pull your hand directly towards you and up creating the look of a 4 rotated to the right three times. post-2083-0-91927500-1525677505_thumb.jpg Holding the bobbin in the tag hand parallel to the shank of the hook and holding the whip finisher in the bobbin hand wind the finisher away from you while keeping the wraps snug. Wrap away from you three times and taaa-daaa!! you created the whip finish... Undo the single wrap that is around the bobby pin end of the whip finisher while still holding the hook part with the thread,post-2083-0-72405400-1525677660_thumb.jpg pull the bobbin that is in the tag hand directly back from the shank and tighten the loop releasing the whip finisher once it’s in contact to the head of the fly. Cut the thread post-2083-0-01598900-1525677709_thumb.jpgclose to the head of the fly and you’re done!!

9. The finished fly: should look similar to this. :thumbup:post-2083-0-98036400-1525677774_thumb.jpg (Keeping in mind I used an oversized hook, orange thread and made the head bigger than it should have been for teaching reasons. Proportions we will discuss later after we get the feel for everything..

 

​Remember to practice, practice, practice, because we don't become amazing tiers in one fly don't worry if it unwraps, :censored: cut your thread and start again by mounting another hook. As I add more to this library we can cover other techniques and required skills again such as proportions.

 

In step 1. Mounting your hook, I mention down eye, up eye and straight eye. The reason for the eyes of the hook to be offset is to create a different action of :fishy: movement below the water's surface and/or on top of the water's surface. Right now our focus is tying not the action of the fly in the water.. that will come as we advance as tiers. =)

 

In step 3. I mention that if you ever see your bobbin resting front side of the hook, that you may have wrapped your thread the wrong way. This can cause your fly to fall apart :opps: if you originally started wrapping away from you... when I teach I will always encourage to wrap away from yourself. Although there is an occasional time we wrap toward us and I'll be sure to tell you when and where to use that style of wrapping.

 

Hmmm so much reading for you and writing for me I think I'll end here. So chin up and keep up the great work, :goldstar: tie as often as you can and come out to the club. We'd love to help and watch what you can do!

I will always be happy to help and answer your questions to the best of my ability. Or you can contact me at http://members@nlft.org Don't hesitate to message me any questions you have. There is no such thing as a stupid question. As I have learned they are all good!

 

oh oh oh!! before I go... I'll tell you a secret :secret: want to know what it is??? .... I'm still learning new things about fly tying. And I still practice as much as I can, oh and another thing "so what if my fly doesn't look like it was bought in a store, or if it looks like that old dude :dar: who's been tying like foorrrrrrr evvvvverrrrrrrr wanna know why cause I tied it and I like the way I tie. :vdaylove:

​Just like the way you should like your tying.. :wub: No ones flies are better than anyone else's and if they say that they are welllllll that's a whole other lesson :wedgie: I hope we don't have to learn together.

​Keep tying and watch for our next post in the next month or so!

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:excl: On a side note I recommend tying in seven's. :excl:

(Seven, is a lucky number because our muscles and our brains retain the movements and instructions by the time we do something seven times over)

 

Tie seven of each size hook :eek: that is comfortable for you to use but no more than three different sizes of hooks. I know it sounds like a lot and so confusing :huh: but I'll explain ...

**This is the practice that I mentioned in the above post, and trust me it gets boring really, :blink2: really, boring tying an entire pack of 50/count size #8 hooks, I did this :blush: DO NOT DO THIS lol :laugh: **

 

For example:

I will tie seven hooks in size #6, seven hooks in size #8 and seven hooks in size #10 and in each different hook size I will use different colors of Thread, Marabou, Chenille and Hackle.

 

 

​Streamer Hook: #6-2xl

​Thread: Onyx 6/0

​Tail: Onyx Marabou

Hackle: Olive Grizzly

​Chenille: Onyx - [ Always wrap your chenille right after you secure the marabou

 

Here is an alternative I tied (it's a size #6-2xl) to the first one we tied together my hackle is tied in tip first rather than butt end (and before the chenille rather than after) see the difference with the shape of the hackle? the shape of the hackle is not a lot but you can see a little difference but sometimes we can really see a visible difference in some cases. Now does chenille go first or hackle go first when it comes to being tied in.. well to me it does not matter but sometimes I like my hackle tied in (not wrapped) under my chenille so it doesn't pop out. "a just in case" extra move for me that I like doing especially if I know I'm going to be hitting some rough waters. I kept this very basic and simple only because I have all the detail in the post above.

 

 

​Mount hook post-2083-0-69477900-1525824631_thumb.jpg

​Dress Hook post-2083-0-90332000-1525824766_thumb.jpg

​Add Marabou post-2083-0-30965000-1525824878_thumb.jpg

​Add Hackle, this time I am tying in hackle before chenille and tip first. post-2083-0-46284400-1525824952_thumb.jpg

​Add Chenille post-2083-0-03076700-1525824984_thumb.jpg

​Wrap Chenille, :excl2: always wrap chenille right after marabou is secured onto the hook unless you are following another pattern post-2083-0-23792900-1525825033_thumb.jpg lock chenille

​Wrap Hackle post-2083-0-09410000-1525825296_thumb.jpg lock hackle

​Make Head, Whip Finish and cut thread post-2083-0-80473400-1525825404_thumb.jpg

 

​Have fun practicing and don't sweat the small stuff :cry: like I said just mount another hook and move on! soon you'll be sailing :boat: through the woolly bugger pattern and ready to move on to a another more complicated style of the woolly bugger! :clap:

 

 

 

 

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