Wrapping the Body: Woolly Bugger Fly

Video Transcript

"JEFF WILKINS: This is Jeff Wilkins for Expert Village. Now the body material, we're going to take a piece of estaz. This is a sparkle--kind of a flashy [SOUNDS LIKE] bush chenille if you will. It's pretty shaggy, makes a great body. We're going to prepare that by pulling some of the fibers off. You pull on this. You'll find it's like regular chenille, it has a thread core. Two whole white threads in there. I like to pull out so they have a kind of a little nub to tie in. I'm going to use a little bit of saliva, moisten it, twist it and we're going to tie this in on my side. Come around it with a real soft loop, just enough tension to catch it. And then start wrapping with tension. And I'm going to wrap forward, going over that tag. Now if I do that carefully, I won't have to trim. Put a drop of cement there. That can serve as a good anchor for both the body and the tail. Next, I'll take a piece of ultra wire. This is a hot yellow, this will stand out a little bit over the body, it'll also reinforce the hackle. I'm going to tie that in the same place as I did the body material. The next step, we're going to wrap this thread forward. I'm going to position it right ahead of the lead wire. That way we're planning on where we're going to tie it off when we do that. Carefully, without throwing the tail out of position, I'm going to start wrapping the body material forward. And as I wrap this forward, I'll just lightly stroke the fibers back, which will make a much more even body. The estaz chenille is great because it creates a really nice profile. It gives the fish the feeling they're getting a real meal for their effort. So that's what it looks like when you stroke the fibers back. Now to tie it off, I'm going to hold it with my right hand or my off-hand. I've switched hands. I'm going to wrap the bobbin with the left. I'm going to come straight over top of it. Tie it down with about 3 turns. And now, I'll switch hands back and I'll hold the material back with my left hand and make a few wraps with the right. That'll make things a little neater and then I'll just trim the excess estaz off."