Beginner’s Fly Tying: the CHRLFY

The fly pattern chosen for our September ‘kick off’ class, is a variant (CHRLFY) of the well-known standard Woolly Bugger, which I have found to be quite productive in fishing for trout and smallmouth bass. My CHRLFY variant refers to adding a cone-head, rubber legs, and crystal flash to a standard Woolly Bugger. 

The original and classic Woolly Bugger was tied by Russell Blessing in 1967 to imitate a hellgrammite (or dobsonfly nymph) as a modification of its precursor pattern, the Woolly Worm. Commonly referred to as a wet fly or streamer the Woolly Bugger may represent any of the following natural fish foods; large nymph, baitfish, leech, drowning terrestrial insect, clam worm, crayfish, shiner or crab. Indeed Woolly Buggers are a versatile fly pattern for fishing streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and tidal flats. When tied in a variety of styles and colors they indeed represent a wide variety of game fish prey.