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 Post subject: Hairy Bugger
PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:01 am • # 1 
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Sr. Member

Joined: 12/31/13
Posts: 309
Location: Magnolia, Texas
Been slaving over the vice in my late night free time of late - and have been experimenting. Couple of my latest creations turned out smashingly, if I may say so myself.

My favorite fly, without a doubt, is the woolly bugger. But I love tweaking it and making variations on it - and my latest creation I have "dubbed" (pardon the pun) the "Hairy Bugger"

Image

The recipe is simple

Hook - 2X-4X streamer hook. I prefer straight eye, but only had down eyes for this session.
Tail - Marabou
Rib - fine silver wire
Body - Ice Dub
Hackle - Deer Hair
Weight - Brass barbell
Thread - 6/0 Uni

Begin the fly as normal - I start the thread at the eye and wrap back to form a thread base. Make a tail the length of the hook shank with the marabou. Tie in the tip of the wire rib, then secure the barbell eye near the eye of the hook. Here's where it takes a turn from a standard bugger.

Create two dubbing loops - for a size 8 fly like this one - I use a 4" long loop. Use your whip finish tool, or materials clip to hold the thread of one loop out of the way. Fill the other loop with small chunks of ice dub - keep the clumps sparse but pack the loop for 3/4 of the length. Keep the material 50/50 on either side of the thread, and spin it nice and tight. Use a bodkin or brush to pick out the dubbing to make it a very buggy body, and wrap forward and secure.

Now for the "hackle" - cut a large clump of hair from your deer hide - on a size 8 hook I used a clump about 1/4 inch thick. Stack the hair to even the tips. Trim the stack so that it's about an inch or so long. Open your saved loop and insert the clump. Pinch the dubbing loop to hold tension on it close to the hair clump and carefully spread it out throughout the length of the loop and maintain tension. You want to balance the hair about 60/40 with the tip side sticking further out of the loop. CAREFULLY trim the butts off close to the thread. Use your dubbing spinner or hook tool and spin the hair. Use a bodkin or needle to keep the hair fibers from getting trapped - you want to keep the tips out. Careful not to spin so tight that you bust the thread, but spin it enough to make a nice tight brush - your hair should look like a sparse bottle brush now.

Wind the "hackle" forward, stroking the fibers back to avoid trapping any. Palmer the loop forward like it was a feather. Secure at the head. Counter wrap the rib to further reinforce the collar/hackle. Secure the end, break off the excess, and cement the head.

I also did some in cone head style:

Image

Everything is the same, except you don't need to secure the cone with thread wraps, but make sure you build the body and collar large enough to snug the cone up to the eye.

The deer hair will give you a bit added noise when stripping or twitching the fly through the water, since it's stiffer than hackle fibers. It gives the fly more bulky appearance without actually making the fly heavier to boot. The synthetic ice dub body, instead of chenille gives added flash and sparkle.

Play around with color combos. Enjoy.


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 Post subject: Re: Hairy Bugger
PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 7:29 am • # 2 
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Hero Member

Joined: 12/29/12
Posts: 1835
Location: Rusagonis, New Brunswick, Canada
Brilliant!


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 Post subject: Re: Hairy Bugger
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 7:18 pm • # 3 
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Sr. Member

Joined: 12/31/13
Posts: 309
Location: Magnolia, Texas
Few more:

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