Olive Wooly Bugger

The first fly I ever tied was an Olive Wooly Bugger. Can`t remember where I got the tools and materials. Think it may have been a shop called Hookers that had a small fly tying section. I was working nights at the time, in a job that afforded a lot of free time. I filled that time tying up Buggers. For just a few bucks in materials, I ended up wrapping up a couple of hundred flies. From the first one to the last, I am sure there was an improvement in my technique. Seeing the odd survivors now, it would be impossible for me to tell you which was tied first. All were pretty awful ties. All worked. I also suspect all the best ties were the first to be fished, and eventually lost. Leaving me with the also-rans.

........a fat bass.

Like most neophytes attempts, the flies were far from perfect. But they caught fish. I had so many of them tied, that for decades afterwards, until this day, I still come across them in my boxes on occassion. I call them Ànorexic Buggers`, as unlike most beginners, I did not add to much material. In fact, the opposite was true. Perhaps to little. The thing is, those decades later, those Olive Buggers will catch fish on days other patterns, much newer and more ably tied, will not.

I rarely tie up colours of buggers other than Olive. I would say 90% of the time I throw a bugger, its Olive. I have my reasoning as to why this colour is so productive, and one doesn`t need to look past the food fare of fish to figure out why. A lot of food stuffs for fishie`s come in this colour.

Today was another very productive day on Horne. Perch are going crazy. Very aggressive, nailing everything. There also pretty fat and pretty feisty. Also managed a few nice bass. There was the constant threat of a downpour that kept me close to the launch. As a result I only fished a couple of hours before deciding to pack it in. Just before pulling out, mere feet from my launch, a managed a very respectable 11`` perch.