I’ve been doing some reading on Wooly Worms and find the terms “True Wooly Worm” being used with no explanation given of what is meant by the term True. Does anyone have any information regarding this terminology ?
The only thing I can find to date is that it had a red tail, and that is all that is mentioned.
There is (was?) a fly called a True wooly worm. It was created by a tier named Bill True, I believe. It had a body of chenille: 1/3 orange, 1/3 black, 1/3 orange. I can’t remember any other details.
We get these little guys during the fall, I’ve seen ‘true woolly worm’ flies tied to imitate…1/3 black, 1/3 orange, 1/3 black chenille for the body, with a sparse black rooster hackle palmered over the body.
I found myself spelling it different ways sometimes, and decided I would at least be CONSISTENT in my own spelling of it. So, right or wrong, I go with “woolly”. :rolleyes:
The line can get blurred so quickly. I look at Rich Osthoff’s Woolly Worm and see Frailey’s Woolly Fur Bugger. Someone else will go back 40yrs and see something else. Don’t know, but I just fish it and let the fish decide if it’s good or not!!
As a kid growing up in Illinois I remember seeing all black, medium brown and cream colored wooly worms in later summer/early fall crawling across the old country roads between corn fields. I used to run over them with my bike and make 'em go “POP”. Fun times for a demented little imp.
But never saw black/brown/black. Must be a regional thing.