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This fly serves triple duty. I use it as a streamer for stripers and both as a streamer and on top for LMB. It's productive throughout the year and quick, easy and cheap to tie. You probably have the materials in your box already so it's no big investment to tie a few and give them a try. MaterialsHook - Eagle Claw 413
jig Hook, 2/0 to 3/0 Tying instructionsTie on a pencil lead's thickness (about 15 strands, doubled) of silver flashabou extending three inches to the rear from the bend, running them 3/4 of the way up the hook to thicken the fly body.
Tie on a clump of white marabou, cut long with the butt ends laying on the hook and the fluffy ends past the bend, allowing at least 3/4 inch of flashabou exposed.
Turn the hook over and tie an equal amount of chartreuse marabou on the bottom side of the hook, again, extending the feather butts along the hook to thicken the fly body.
Turn the hook back over. Tie in the copper reinforcement wire and two barred olive hackles, butt end first, at the point where the tail and body join.
Tie in the Mylar chenille and wind it tightly up the hook in a clockwise direction to where the body ends.
Palmer the twin barred hackle feathers up the hook in a clockwise direction. Tie off and then wind the wire reinforcement up to the front of the hook, in a counterclockwise direction locking in the hackle and chenille. Tie off and finish head with a drop of Dave's Flexcement.
That's it, you're done. This fly can be tied in less than five minutes. With practice, you can produce a day's worth of ammo in twenty minutes.
Fishing the Giant Woolly BuggerStripersFor stripers, this fly is fished as you would a clouser, whistler or any streamer type fly. Remember though, the fly is un-weighted and sinks slowly. Use that to your advantage when fishing the fly in mid-column, pausing during the retrieve to allow the fly to sink slowly. LMB - When fished on a sinking line.Since the fly retrieves hook up you can cast it over and next to weed beds with only marginal fouling. Retrieves can vary with lots of pauses allowing the fly to sink into holes in the grass and weeds or a steady, pulsing retrieve all the way to the boat. Since the fly is fairly bright, you can sight fish it to depths of about three feet in clearer portions of the delta, sometimes seeing the takes as a fish darts out and grabs the fly. LMB - When fished on a floating line.When I fish this fly on a floating line I grease the body portion and hackles by warming Vaseline in my fingers and rubbing it into the body chenille and hackle. I keep the grease off the tail. When cast, the fly floats with the tail spreading out on the water, the flashabou glittering. Let it rest until all the ripples disappear. Then twitch it just slightly. If still no takes, start stripping in. The fly will retrieve just under the surface of the water creating a visible wake and bulge. Try retrieves both with and without pauses. Other Color combinations for LMB.I tie this fly in a number of colors besides chartreuse. You can tie the fly in any color you can get supplies. Some combinations are all black, olive with barred olive hackle, white with barred gray and white hackle, lime green, yellow, red, etcetera. If you look in any of the pro-basser's tackle boxes, you'll see the same lure in several colors. You should have the same in your fly box. Turning the fly in to a diver.If you want the fly to dive rather than hang weightless on the pauses, just add a set of eyes at the forward end of the body. Light bead eyes will cause the fly to slowly tip forward while a good set of barbells will cause the fly to turn nose down and plunge to the bottom. FeedbackDon't stop here, add, subtract, and modify the fly as it suits you. Fish it with confidence, it DOES produce. If you find some mods that seem to really turn the fish on, please let me know. If you've fished the fly and think it's a looser, let me know as well.
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