Re: [VFB] Halo Buggers

[Tom Davenport]

Who knows what a wooly bugger is these days? I can't think any fly that has gone through more "innovations" than the wooly bugger.  Technically, I'm sure you are right, a true "Wooly" would use a palmered hackle. In the fly tying class I took with Paul Stimpson,  we tied two Lafontain flies that gave me the idea for the "Halo".  The first is the twist nymph, that uses the electronic tester to hold peacock herl and a strand of thread that has been touch dubbed with chopped orange antron.  These materials are twisted together, resulting in a peacock body with an orange antron halo. The next fly was the "Drunken Sailor", another Lafontaine fly made by wrapping an antron body, attaching two marabou feathers matuka style on top, and then using some clipped antron to spin a  collar. The innovation on the drunken sailor also gave it its name, two strips of lead were tied on one side of the shank, and a plastic bead was used for the head to give it a little floatation. When the fly is stripped it lists to one side like a "drunken sailor".   While tying  these I decided it would be easier to created the antron halo but using roughed up strips of antron plies to make a dubbing loop.  It looked even better with a little ice dub or mohair added.  And the fish seem to like it.  And you are right, it is essentially a mohair style fly that uses antron instead of thread for the dubbing loop. So there really wasn't much "innovation" at all, I just used someone else's ideas with different materials. For those of you who asked for pictures:  I will post some on my web site, and give you the link. Tom On Jun 19, 2006, at 8:23 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hey Tom,   Would the pattern be represented as a bugger if it did not have a palmered hackle? Your description reminds me of Mohair Leech patterns or the type, where the material is teased and flows back over a marabou tail. I like the innovation and will give it a try. Regards, Steve    -----Original Message----- From: Tom Davenport <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: vfb@troutnet.com Sent: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 10:04:24 -0600 Subject: [VFB] Halo Buggers I have come up with a new way of tying wooly buggers (for me) and I call them "Halo" buggers (as in a halo of light). I've borrowed the halo term from Gary LaFontaine's flies because it uses Gary's favorite light reflecting material, Antron yarn.    Tying them is very simple:    Use the bead, weight that you normally use.    Attach a marabou tail to match the body material, as usual.    Here comes the "innovation" (I know, there is nothing new under the fly tying sun). Take a three inch piece of sparkle yarn and unwind it into its three plys. Take two of the plys and attach them to the hook shank, tied down to the tail. Then take an electronic tester tool (it has a wire loop that pops out of the end and grabs things, in this case the end of the plys ) and grab the ends. Take a tooth brush with the the bristles cut short and rough the plys up so they are nice and fuzzy, but still intact. Put your favorite wooly bugger material (ice dub, mohair, rabbit fur or chopped marabou, peacock herl, etc) into the two plys, as if they were a dubbing loop (if using peacock herl, tie them in parallel with the plys and grab them with the tester tool as well). Twist until tight, wrap and tie off. Then ta e the toothbrush and brush the body out toward the tail. The result is a nice, full bodied wooly bugger with an antron halo surrounding the body. And it is a very fast tie.    Here are my favorite combinations so far:    White Antron, white Ice Dub.    Black Antron, black icedub.    Olive Antron, Peacock herl with olive ice dub.    Olive icedub with "spectrumized" mohair (you spectrumize it by blending a lot of different colors to get a new color that is different than any of the individuals. This is the technique used in Canadian mohair)    The same with a little icedub added to the spectrumized mohair.    Goes good with a Chili Pepper on top!    At my last trip to Strawberry Reservoir I tied some up in white using white icedub, and caught three trout before anyone else had any. I ended up giving the rest I had away to the other's fishing with me, so they could get into fish.    Now, go ahead and tell me who had already thought of this technique first, and while you are at it, let me know how you REALLY spell the plural form of "ply".    Tom Davenport  Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.