A (not so) modest claim about the WoolyMugger

http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...llyMugger.html

I've been tying (the above WoollyMugger) for two full seasons now.
But it wasn't until this spring and this fall that I really got a
chance
to let this fly show me its stuff.

This is the best *big* fish fly I know.
LIttle WoolyMuggers (less than 3" long) are good all-purpose
streamers. But the big ones (3-6" long) have juju over big
brown trout. You don't have to strip them. WoollyMuggers
move almost automatically, with sensuous waves that travel
from front to back, even when drifting. With the WoollyMugger
there is no dead drift.......instead, it's more like a live drift.

Damn good fly.
It's too cold and windy to fish, so I'll ry to get photos of the tying
sequence done sometime this weekend.

"pittendrigh" wrote in message
ups.com...

http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...s/Sandy_Pitten
drigh/Streamers/WollyMugger/WollyMugger.html

I've been tying (the above WoollyMugger) for two full seasons now.
But it wasn't until this spring and this fall that I really got a
chance
to let this fly show me its stuff.

This is the best *big* fish fly I know.
LIttle WoolyMuggers (less than 3" long) are good all-purpose
streamers. But the big ones (3-6" long) have juju over big
brown trout. You don't have to strip them. WoollyMuggers
move almost automatically, with sensuous waves that travel
from front to back, even when drifting. With the WoollyMugger
there is no dead drift.......instead, it's more like a live drift.

Damn good fly.
Looks it, Sandy.......It looks as if it would be more fragile,
with the saddle-hackle base for the structure of it. Is it??
Tom

Tom Littleton wrote:

Looks it, Sandy.......It looks as if it would be more fragile,
with the saddle-hackle base for the structure of it. Is it??


I'll try to get the howto photos online today.
It's a bit invovled.......but I like it that way.

I put two vices face to face. One is a rotary.
The other holds a swivel. I connect the swivel
to an open loop in some stainless wire, then
clamp the other end of the wire to the rotary vice.

Now I can spin the rotary vice to make the wire spin
like a fly tying lathe.

Cover the wire with spawn sack netting. This makes a
strong base, and it's slippery enough so the whole works
can be slid off the wire in a final step.

Lash on the hooks. Tie lead eyes to the front hook.
Wind to the rear (spinning the hand lathe) and now wind
on saddle hackle. Always leave the thread dangling to
the rear of the hackle. Wind the thread forward, over hte hackle,
winding in the opposite direction. Use hackle pliers to pinch
the front end of the hackle while reverse winding the over thread.

slide it off. Drop CA glue onto the eyes.
Clinch knot to the rear hook. Throw and overhand knot
over the front end of the front hook. Thread the tippet
through the front eye and tie it off to the leader.
You may or may not want to add additional split shot.

The fly snakes and undulates from front to back.
Drives'em wild.

At the Paradise Valley Spring creeks, south of Livingston
MT, on a cloudy day and after the hatches (if there are any)
you can fish these guys in the deep fast water below the
various culverts. They'll pull up 2-3 browns over 20" long
at each culvert. You don't always get them hooked, but they
always chase and bite.

pittendrigh wrote:
Tom Littleton wrote:

Looks it, Sandy.......It looks as if it would be more fragile,
with the saddle-hackle base for the structure of it. Is it??


I'll try to get the howto photos online today.
It's a bit invovled.......but I like it that way.


Well, get those pics up!!!! I've got the perfect vise for this job and
I want to tie up a few this week.
Nice looking fly. Could see this playing well on some of those deep
stretches on Penns Creek.
Frank Reid

Frank Reid wrote:
Well, get those pics up!!!!

Ok, here's a first ugly stab at photos.
....haven't got time to do good work today.


http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...llyMugger.html

"pittendrigh" wrote


At the Paradise Valley Spring creeks, south of Livingston
MT, on a cloudy day and after the hatches (if there are any)
you can fish these guys in the deep fast water below the
various culverts. They'll pull up 2-3 browns over 20" long
at each culvert. You don't always get them hooked, but they
always chase and bite.


If you were going to tie such a goodie for "SINGLE barbless hook" waters ...
which hook? My guess is the rear, but I really don't have a clue where a
trout would bite such a wiggler

Larry L wrote:
"pittendrigh" wrote


At the Paradise Valley Spring creeks, south of Livingston
MT, on a cloudy day and after the hatches (if there are any)
you can fish these guys in the deep fast water below the
various culverts. They'll pull up 2-3 browns over 20" long
at each culvert. You don't always get them hooked, but they
always chase and bite.



If you were going to tie such a goodie for "SINGLE barbless hook" waters ...
which hook? My guess is the rear, but I really don't have a clue where a
trout would bite such a wiggler

In my experience (mainly in Idaho) the "single barbless hook" rule is
meant to forbid treble hooks and the like, not rigs with two single
barbless hooks. In Idaho, for example, you're allowed to use up to FIVE
single barbless hooks in one rig. (I don't recommend it, especially if
you're landing the fish with a net.)

Whether one "lure" having two hooks is a violation is an interesting
question that, AFAIK, has not been resolved.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Larry L wrote:
If you were going to tie such a goodie for "SINGLE barbless hook" waters ...
which hook? My guess is the rear, but I really don't have a clue where a
trout would bite such a wiggler

That's an interesting question. I tried to publish an article about
soft foam
steamers a few years back. Never got any takers (was too much like
simulated bait fishing, and the editors got the shakes). Anyway, here's
a
quote from that languishing piece:

Predatory fish in general and trout in particular seldom swallow a bait
fish that isn't oriented head first. In his 1991 paper on the
'Evolutionary attributes of headfirst prey manipulation and swallowing
in piscivores,' T.E. Reimchen observes that "cutthroat trout often
attack prey near the center of mass, which tends to be closer to the
head than the tail in most fishes," and then, a few sentances later:
"prey that are attacked at mid-body are generally rotated into
headfirst alignment for swallowing."(1)

........so, the normal behavior is to attack the center of mass, which
is right behind the gills
on most fishes, and somewhere just to the front of dead center on the
Woolly Mugger.

Soft Streamers:
http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...z-Article.html