"Late Beats Never"

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

Joe,

A neat article on the main page. It was something, looking at that little bugger…even made me dig out a dime and envision the fly.

Hmmm, super tiny for my buggers! Maybe I’ll have to whip out a few for the tough times next season! And in different colors.

Jeremy.

2

Although simple, the pattern is ridiculously effective!

Joe, what material is the tail? It doesn’t appear to be marabou, but yet doesn’t quite look like rabbit either. Perhaps I am psyching myself out - looking too hard.

Rocking article!

3

Good job on the article!

4

SKershaw,
Looks like Arctic Fox to me. But that might be because I recently bought some!

Kirk

5

Hi SKershaw,

I don’t know if it is one of the small buggers I tied, or one that one of the other guys tied. It looks like there might be an “eye” painted on the bead, and if that is the case it is not one of mine. I can’t tell for sure.

At any rate I use rabbit for the tail on a lot of the small buggers I tie. It is really tough and has good movement too. The fur on the bugger in Joe’s picture looks like rabbit to me.

Peter Frailey has good articles on using rabbit for bugger tails. I don’t know if he originated the concept of rabbit for bugger tails or just made them more popular.

Peter recommends buying zonker strips for sources of rabbit. I have zonker strips, also some pieces of dyed rabbit from Ebay, and some rabbit that I dyed myself.

Regards,

Gandolf

6

Not positive but I think the tail is marabou. The Wooly Bugger in the photo is the one that caught all those fish. I photographed the fly a couple days after the trip, after it had dried out. The tail fibers were still all stuck together like dried algae and I had to rub the tail between thumb and index finger to fluff the fibers back to their original bushy look. That makes me think it’s a marabou tail; marabou does that.

The body of the bugger is pretty cool, too. There are tones of dark green and black. Plus there’s a reflective quality as well. Interesting material whatever it is.

I keep trying to NOT take up fly tying. Don’t know how much longer I can hold out.

Joe
“Better small than not at all.”

7

Thanks for all the help, fellers! Excellent ideas there too… I have never tied with arctic fox. I will give all those ideas a shot!:smiley:

8

Hate to admit I rarely read the articles here. I will take a look however.

9

Joe, what you describe does sound like marabou…at first glance yesterday I thought…arctic fox…but in the larger picture in your article at the bottom of the tail I believe you can see a quill.

What you describe for the body sounds like Ice Dub…peacock black.

10

I once lived with an arctic fox.

Well, she was a fox – that much I knew. I just didn’t realize how “arctic” she was until after she’d gone through about half my savings account.

Joe
“Better small than not at all.”

11

If I was a betting person I would bet that the tail is rabbit fur and the body was several strands of peacock herl twisted together and wrapped onto the hook shank. That is the way I will tie some up and I will use a tungsten bead. Chris, our Man From Canada, sent me some flies to try and they were buggers in sizes 14, 16 and 18 and they have been very productive here for the trout plus pretty productive on the bluegill too. Chris, if you are reading this, thank you very much for showing me a new productive pattern and getting the creative tying “juices” flowing again!

Just my guess and nothing more…forgive me if I “hi-jacked” this thread…

12

Maybe it’s buffalo. Jim

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13

Gandy,

Good call on that rabbit. I’d forgoten about that and on a fly this small it be perfect! Great stuff.

I also would try to keep some of the colors that Joe mentioned. They just sounded good!

Jeremy.

14

I just read your story this afternoon, Joe. What a wonderful story. As I sit here watching river gauges showing the torrent flooding waters of my rivers your story transported me back to summer time and days spent drifting on calm warm waters. Thank you.

15

Hi Joe,

When I looked at the bugger, it struck me the same way it struck WarrenP, in that the body looked like strands of peacock twisted together, and the black you see could be the black thread that it is twisted with. That kind of body is one I tie fairly often.

Could you do a test to see if it is peacock or one of the synthetics? To do that you just put the bugger in water for a few minutes. If, after the bugger is soaked, the color of the body of the bugger appears to be a copperish or reddish gold color, or something similar, then the material is peacock.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

16

GANDOLF & KERRY:

Gandolf:

This fly tying stuff is rocket science to me. PM me with your mailing address and I’ll mail the thing to you for inspection. I’m curious myself what the materials are!

The more I look at the photo I took for that story, the more that Bugger DOES look like its tail is made with hair fibers (or fur, if that’s the right term) than it looks like marabou feather.

Wish I’d paid closer attention. On my fly box foam that Wooly Bugger was surrounded by marabou flies. I did assume the Bugger’s tail was marabou, but only due to its fluffy tail which fit in stylistically with the marabou jobs.

So I certainly might have mis-categorized and mis-reported the Bugger’s components. As a fly tyer, I don’t know from Shine-ola.

WHATEVER it was put together with, godamighty, that Bugger flat got with the program! The gillie’s couldn’t leave it alone.

Kerry:

Thanks for the compliment. If you enjoy zoning out on 100-proof “down home fishing”, then go way back into FAOL’s Panfish Archive and read every story that Rick Zieger has ever written.

Wasn’t for Rick, and me surfing the Internet the night I sumbled across Rick’s Panfish accounts of trips he’s taken, I would not today be into fly fishiing.

I was ALMOST DONE with fly fishing, then one winter night I discovered FAOL and read Rick Zieger’s stories. Everything I do on the water now, eveything I write about afterward that you read in my stories now, it’s largely due to information gained in this site that I keep incorporating into my knowledge base.

Lots of warm water fly fishers have submitted to FAOL an article they’ve written. Check the Archive if you want proof of this. You should consider contributing to this site’s writer/reader experience yourself.

Everyone who enjoys fly fishing should consider doing this. Wam water or cold water.

Joe
"Better small than not at all.

17

Hi Joe,

I sent you a message.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

18

Thanks Joe, really nice thing to write. :slight_smile:

19

Hey Joe. Thanks for the great article. That is one cool fly. I like the little ones like that and I like buggers.

Gandolf, we’re all sitting on the edge of our seats to find out more about this fly. We’re expecting you to report back what you discover. :wink:

Thanks in advance. Can’t wait. :smiley:

20

Joe,

I sent a private message via FAOL “Private Messages” but haven’t heard back from you. Check your private messages.

I went fishing today, as it was really nice this afternoon, and I had the afternoon off, but didn’t even get a nibble…tried several flies, but to no avail.

Regards,

Gandolf