Tie a Woolly Bugger step by step

Woolly Bugger is the perfect first fly to tie. It teaches you all the basic moves, it is hard to get properly wrong, and it catches fish in practically every put-and-take water. If you have tools and materials in place you are ready. This is how you do it.

Step by step

1. Start the thread. Set the hook in the vice and start the tying thread behind the hook eye. Wrap back to the hook bend.
2. Tie the tail. Tie in a tuft of marabou as a tail, about as long as the hook. Clip the surplus.
3. Prepare the body. Tie in a length of chenille and a hackle feather at the hook bend.
4. Thread forward. Wrap the tying thread forward to just behind the hook eye.
5. Wrap the body. Wrap the chenille forward in tight turns to a full body and lock it with the thread.
6. Wrap the hackle. Wrap the hackle feather forward in open turns through the body, lock it and clip the surplus.
7. Finish. Make a couple of finishing turns, whip-finish and put a drop of varnish on the knot.

Tips for a tidier fly

Do not rush. Keep even tension on the thread and lay the wraps beside each other, so everything sits. If you want the fly to sink faster you can wrap a little lead wire on the hook shank before the body, or slide on a gold bead before you start. The tail should be a sensible length, roughly as long as the hook – too long tangles, too short loses movement.

Build your box

Start with black in size 8 and 10, then tie an olive and a signal-coloured variant. Then you have a small suite of Woolly Buggers that covers clear and coloured water plus freshly stocked fish. Read how you fish them under Woolly Bugger, and which more flies are worth tying under beginner flies.