Jay Nicholas is having more fun trying his tying hand at adapting our standard patterns to tubes and new materials. Yes, this is fun. Will these catch fish? Absolutely. We have fished enough flies la all sorts over our collective years to know that these will be effective and gosh it makes for fun when we sit down to tie.
The long-bodied bead-head bugger is a fly style typically crafted on 2XL, 3XL, or even 4XL shank hooks in sizes as large as #2, depending on where one is fishing.
The fly demonstrated here would be about equivalent to a bugger tied on a #8, 2XL hook, and this particular size works really nicely on the small diameter classic tube, noted below.
This is tied with a tungsten bead head and man-oh-man it will go down and impart that jigging action. One could also tie this fly with a standard brass bead, glass bead, or no bead at all.
Imagine this fly tied with a little collar of Senyo’s hot pink Laser Yarn at the head?
Bet that would be a slow sinking winner too.
And could this tube bugger substitute for a hot-bead Stonefly nymph? Think it could, yes indeed.
Key materials of this EP Tarantula Tube Trout Bugger are noted as follows:
Thread – Veevus 6/0 or 8/0 black
Hook – Daiichi Short Shank Straight Eye D1640 #4 to #8
Tube Mandrel – Small Pro Sportfisher Flexi Needle
Tube – Small Classic Pro Sportfisher Tube, black or clear
Hook Guide – Pro Sportfisher small, black or red
Tail – Hareline Claret Wooly Bugger Marabou
Tail Flash – Krystal Flash, Pearl or Chartreuse
Body – EP Tarantula Hairy Legs Brush, ½” width, red/black
Bead – Hareline Tungsten Hot Bead 7/32
Wire Cutters – Dr. Slick 4.75” Gold Barb Crusher Scissor Clamp
