Cathy’s Super Bugger

While searching for tying instructions on YouTube for Cathy’s Super Beetle, I encountered a video showing the tying steps for Cathy’s Super Bugger. As I was looking for ideas to augment my supply of streamers, this caught my attention. I possessed all the materials required to produce this variation on the ever popular woolly bugger, so I scheduled it for my next tie.

The woolly bugger is one of the simplest yet most effective flies ever created. It is typically the first fly that beginners attempt as only a few materials are attached to the hook, and it introduces the novice tier to wrapping chenille and hackle.

Four Completed

I made one modification to the YouTube video instructions by substituting a cone shaped bead for barbell eyes, but everything else followed the script. I added crystal flash to the tail, and wrapped a very webby hackle from my grizzly cape. The other enhancement over a traditional woolly bugger was the addition of long speckled silicone legs dangling just behind the cone head. I think that the reader will agree that these flies look like certain fish attractors. The combination of the marabou tail, oversized grizzly hackle and wiggling legs should create constant movement in the water and attract any fish in the vicinity. I made six with grizzly hackle and two with brown hackle. One never knows what color the fish will prefer.

A Brown Hackle Version Featured