“Fly tying is a school from which we never graduate”
We all have numerous wooly bugger patterns, but this is one I did not have until enlightened by our digital guru, Steve Ostrander. He said that Diamond Lake resort claims to have originated the pattern, but, regardless, it works well on other Cascade lakes as well. It certainly worked one day last summer at Rocky Point! I don’t know why, but there seems to be something magic about burnt orange marabou tails
PATTERN OF THE MONTH – Diamond Lake Wooly Bugger
Hook – #8 nymph. Daiichi 1530 (2XH, 1XS) or Mustad 3906. But any similar hook will do.
Thread – black
Tail – burnt orange marabou, about 1½ shank length, with a couple strips of Krystal Flash or Flashabou atop
Rib – small Ultra Wire
Abdomen – medium olive chenille
Hackle – grizzly saddle. Cree would probably work as well.
Tying Instructions:
Pinch down the hook barb, place the hook in the vise and tie a thread base back to the bend.
Select a burnt orange marabou feather, hopefully one with fluffy barbules all the way to the tip. Pull or cut off about 10 or 12 barbules and tie them on to be 1 ½ to 2 times the length of the hook shank. Add a couple thin strips of pearl Krystal Flash.
Tie in a 2-3” piece of Ultra Wire (any color) at the tail but don’t wrap yet. Let it hang. It will be used to counter wrap over the hackle after it is wrapped back to the tail.
For the abdomen tie on a piece of chenille long enough to wrap to the eye area and wrap it up almost to the eye, Tie down, leaving enough room for the head.
Select a grizzly hackle with barbs about as long as the hook gape. Find the sweet spot near the base of the feather shaft where it flexes freely when bent and tie it on near the eye. Let the thread hang.
Using your hackle pliers, palmer the hackle feather back to the tail in about 4 wraps. Keep the tension on and when you get to the tail, wrap the wire over the tip end of the hackle to secure it. Two wraps are okay but one should hold it in place.
Continue wrapping the wire over the hackle up to the eye area and tie down. Build up a head, whip finish and coat with head cement.
Jon Iverson