A New Favorite Fly

I have fallen in love with this fly this summer.  It is nothing fancy and is not a new or original idea, but holy cow has it worked well for warm water species this summer!  Yes, it is just a wooly bugger but there are some key components that have set this fly apart from other flies that I have fished this summer.

It Matches the Hatch
I think I got the color right on this fly!  If you think about it, almost every small baitfish, tadpole, or juvenile fish have olive and white as their main colors.  This fly matches those characteristics really well and looks like what the fish are eating when they are keying on smaller fish.

Weight
This fly has a small conehead as well as 10 wraps of .020 lead wire behind the cone.  I tie this fly with these two weights for a couple of different reasions.  1. When the wire is set in place with thread, then the cone cannot shift its location.  This makes the fly durable and maintains its structural integrity even after it has caught 10-20 fish in an afternoon.  2. This fly sinks!  I don't have a lot of patience to wait for a fly to sink and I con't have to wait very long with this one.  I always fish this fly with a floating fly line so I need the fly to sink quickly on its own.

Wiggle
Recently I realized that this wooly actually has a little and very subtle wiggle to it in the water.  It actually wiggles in a different pattern than my other woolies and I can only assume it is because of it's construction.  I'm not sure what I did, but I like it!

Flash
I like for flies to have flash, but I also believe in muted flash.  I want things to appear realistic and I don't think there are many chromed-out minnows out there swimming in the water.  I guess that is the trout fisherman in me.  Anyway, this fly has flash in the tail and in the body, but it is muted.  It stands out, but not in a ridiculous way.

Size
I tie this fly on a size 6 hook and I think it is almost perfect.  I think if I tied it smaller, then I wouldn't hook some of the nicer bass that it has landed and would get a lot more hits from smaller fish.  I also think that if I tied it larger, that the proportions might cause the fly to lose it's balanced look.

Castability
Not only can I cast this fly on a four weight, I can use them in a tandem rig on a six weight.  This fly cuts through the air really well and has just the right about of weight that makes it possible for you to put your shoulder into it and cast it fifty feet or more!

If you tie your own flies, you should consider tying up some of these.  If you don't tie and would like some, then feel free to buy some from my Etsy store.  I only sell flies that have worked for me and that I believe in and I definitely have faith in this fly.  I don't have many in stock right now but will be tying more in the coming days in order to always have them available for purchase.

Link to white and olive wooly bugger: https://www.etsy.com/listing/838966869/white-body-cone-head-wooly-bugger?ref=shop_home_active_11