I've been tying mini's for a couple of years. I was fishing over in Arkansas and met a gentleman catching fish on every cast while the rest of us were struggling to catch a few. This fine gentleman was kind enough to share a few of his personal hand tied flies with me and I too was catching fish one after the other. I had a limited amount of tying materials with me so I did what anyone would do....improvised. I had very little hackle with me so to make it go as far as possible, I started tying just a collar instead of a full body hackle. I fished the next 2 day with my improvised flies and my catch rate stayed the same. On my next few trips to other places, I continued using the collar only buggers and saw no change in the catch rate compared to the full hackle version. I now just tie the collar only version.

Doug

now thats a pretty fish. Good job!

Hi Houzehead,
Well the little bit of crysal flash, the beadhead and longer tail all seem to be the key in the fly. Ive used much bigger versions in the 8-14 sizes in early spring and they are sure fire killers up river in the high country. How small can you make the one in your picture, it sure looks deadly. I think a small version of Bulldogs cats wisker would be good too, wonder how small you could make one? Ive used quite a few small versions of the more classic (no flash, beadhead or long tail either) woollybuggers but they dont work nearly as good as the ones like yours with or without the beadhead even though they are much bigger than the tiny ones. At least on warry winter trout anyway. The little ones seem to work good anytime the crappie bite is on though.
Richard

I like it. I think we need to start with say 8 tyers and see if we can make.
Les