Red TBH CDC black fuzzel jig bugger
This fly is one of a series of 4 woolly bugger flies that I tie specifically for river fishing and if I only had one woolly bugger in my river fishing fly box this would be the one.
Beadheads
Silver TBH CDC black/red MKII fuzzel bugger
MKII woolly buggers without any weight are amongst my favourite top dropper flies when loch style fly fishing in lakes and these smaller versions with a silver tungsten bead are up there amongst my favourite river flies.
Silver TBH CDC black sparkle fuzzel bugger
This one of the 4 colours of TBH jig buggers that I carry in my river fly box. It’s a great buggy looking fly that sink well and swims hook point up so less likely to get hooked up on the bottom othan flies that swim hook point down.
TBH “inch” nymph
This fly has it’s origins based on my non bead-head inch nymph fly that I started tying over 20 years ago. For about 10 years now I have been tying this bead-head version in in black, dark olive, Adams colours, claret and brown. It’s a great buggy looking fly and one of the on-going inclusions in my nymph fly box.
Duracell jig nymph
I was attracted to this fly because it is made of two of my favourite fly tying materials UV Ice dubbing and CDC. It has looked like a winner since I first saw this fly and it has not let me down. Designed by, as I understand it, Craig McDonald it is a very popular fly in Europe and fast developing a following in Australia and New Zealand.
Hybrid spider nymph – Chatto’s original
This is more a class of flies rather than just one fly and is a hybrid of a spider fly and a bead head nymph with a tungsten bead up front. I carry 4 different hybrid spider nymphs in two sizes and find them particularly useful in situations where I need a bit of weight to get a fly down yet still want the anchor fly to fish well and be enticing to trout rather than just being an anchor for other flies in the team.
BH silver surfer
I was ripping the black tailed version of this fly through the chop with some success when my boat partner asked what fly is that ‘silver surfer’. I explained to him that it was just a woolly bugger variant tied with a black tail and silver UV straggle fritz. I tried to give it a real name such as ‘silver woolly bugger’ but unfortunately ‘silver surfer’ has stuck.
TBH collared adams nymph
Designed to imitate a caddis grub this fly has additional weight so that it can be fished bouncing along the bottom or close to the bottom. It is very easy to tie and whilst it is not tied to represent any particular caddis grub it has a form and function and of course the hot spot added by the collar which are attractive to fish.
Bead heads – adding weight or eyes to a fly
Whilst beads used in fly tying are made from a variety of materials. There are basically two types. The first are beads that we use in fly tying that were designed for other purposes such as jewelry beads. Then there are specifically designed fly tying beads that are quite different to beads manufactured for the jewelry industry in that most fly tying beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other.