Zug Bug | Fly Tying Tutorial

ZUG BUG Fly Tying Recipe:
HOOK:2X-long nymph hook (e.g. Dai-Riki #730), sizes 14.
FIRST THREAD:Black, 6/0.
TAILS:Peacock herl.
RIB:Silver tinsel.
BODY:Peacock herl.
LEGS:Hen hackle.
WING CASE:Mallard or wood-duck flank feather.
Head: Tying thread.

Buy Material Kit Here

 Hey everybody. Tim Hepworth here. With Thursday Night Live Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters, we are here to tie the Zug bug today on this episode of Quick Tie. This is season five, episode five. We wanna thank Rocky Mountain Fly Shop for bringing you this quick tie. As well, I want you to like and subscribe to this video. I'm gonna be tying out my season five kit. Looks just like. Don't forget, you can still head over to our website and pick one up today if you don't already have one.

It's www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5. You can grab yours there today, as well as the materials list for the fly I'm about  to tie will also be up there on the website. Let's head on over to the vice and get started. Okay, so today we are tying this on a size 14. This is a dairichi #730. There you go. Alright. I'm gonna start my thread just behind the eye. I'm gonna work a thread base down a little ways. Actually, before I do that, I'm gonna remind you of something we need to do for this pattern. We need to leave a longer tag of line. So I'm gonna pull off a little bit extra before I start this on here cuz we are actually gonna use our thread to bind some materials down.

So I'm gonna take this back, leaving this big long tag and just remember, don't trim it out cuz we are gonna use it. So I'm gonna get to about the hook bend and I'm gonna set this. I always find it difficult to keep track of this. So I actually come in here with a little hair clamp and I'm gonna clamp it to my vice over here so that I know where that thread is at all times, and it's outta my way.

So the first material we're using, we're actually using two different types of peacock material. So you have these things called spears. Now if you had a, if I had a full feather here, I could show you where we get these from. But these are called spears. You can see they're a little bit, they're super iridescent, but they're a little bit more pointed in how they come.

And they get a little bushy at the end, so they're a unique material. Grab three to four of them outta your kit. This one here is three of 'em gonna tie in. I want these, I just gotta match up the tips so that the tips are equal in length. Once I have those equal, I'm gonna come over here.

I'm gonna measure off of my hook shank. I want these to be roughly half of the hook, shank in length, sticking out the back. I'm gonna measure that, set that over to the side. Switch hands, take a gathering.  to gather them on top of the hook. Take a few wraps forward and then I'm gonna spring my thread wraps back.

The goal is to try to keep 'em right up on top and then have them secured all the way back to basically where that hook bend was and where I initially had left my thread. Now I'm gonna work myself forward and secure those butts down, and then I'm just gonna come trim 'em out at this point here.

Just so I should have my tail, my spears hanging out like that. I also have that thread there. Haven't cut that yet. So make sure you don't do that. Then I'm gonna come in here with a piece of silver flash, silver tinsel. Pretty much anything silver here could work if you were using silver wire.

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However, you wouldn't need to leave the thread behind, so maybe that's actually a step saver. But the original pattern was just used as a piece of silver tinsel. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm. Get that fixed. Doesn't really matter where in the hook shank, but my thread's up here, so I'm gonna go ahead and do it right there and work.

My thread wraps back to that point. I'm gonna cord up my thread just so it's, here we go. Acting like I wanted to, and now I'm gonna bring my thread back forward to cut it just behind the bead like and I'm gonna go over it. I'm gonna, Now another piece of peacock. This is just peacock herl. Okay, got a nice peacock herl.

Try to find a couple that looked like they got some really nice plump little micro barbells on 'em. Cause that's what we're really gonna be tying this pattern with and trying to make it look good. I want to actually tie this in from the butts this time, cuz I'm gonna be tying it at the front, putting it to the back, using the thread to secure it.

So I want the taper to look a little more natural. So I'm gonna come in and trim out the very stem the base of the stem because it's not weak, but it doesn't have the, what's the right word here? Puffiest or most plump looking portion of the feather. And then I wanna tie this in just in front of the head or the eye of the fly.

Okay. And then we're gonna wrap it backwards, just like that, get that good and secure, trim out any of that little bit of tag, if I had any so I'm gonna take a nice half hitch here. Remember that's just an overhand knot. All I'm doing that for is to get my thread outta the way. And now I'm gonna wrap these two feathers or these peacock curls together, nicely evenly spaced.

Trying not to wrap on top of the previous wrap because I want to have this nice standup of the material. That's where we get our shape on this fly from. We're already gonna have to put two more materials through it, which is gonna bind some of those down. So just make sure you don't touch any of them.

As you go back, I'm gonna take this right to the back of the fly. Now I'm gonna reach in here and grab that thread that I left. Okay? So I got my thread. Make sure it's not tangled up in your, now I'm tangled up in that tinsel. Okay, now I'm gonna do a full wrap over to. , and then I'm gonna wiggle it as I move forward so that it doesn't get trapped or it doesn't trap any or too many of those little pieces of the peacock herl.

Now this is almost acting if you can imagine, like in a wooly bugger, how we take wire and bring it forward over top of a hackle feather. Very similar idea. We're just using the thread because it's a much softer material that we're binding down. But peacock herl is always a little Fragile.

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So we use this to make it a little stronger. Then I'm gonna tie off that thread and now be careful when you trim it out. Make sure you trim out the right thread and not the one that you're still tying with. I'm gonna take a few more thread wraps up here at the eye just to make sure I got this all locked in place and now I can come in here and grab those two peacock herl stems that I have left over and get rid of them.

Now they're outta the way. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do one more half hitch here just to make this a little easier. Keep my thread outta the way. I'm gonna set this aside one more time, and now I'm gonna bring this silver tinsel forward. Same idea, what I just did with the thread. I want three to five wraps as I come forward.

Now this is gonna compress some of those materials. And we actually want it to, because this is what's gonna give some segmentation and it's also gonna give some flash to the center of the body, just like that. One more to get up to the eye and then I'll secure it down, just like that. Make sure the tinsel's not going anywhere and then I can trim it out.

Now I'm gonna run my thread back just a smidge, cuz I'm gonna create a little bit of room cuz we're gonna tie.  a soft tackle up here at the head. And then we're also gonna finish off with this little bit of a piece of a mallard flank that we put on the top as well. So in your kit you're gonna see we have these nice, small, not meant to be super long barbells or anything, but we are gonna pretty much be using that whole little feather.

So let's just pull down any of the pieces that have white on them. That white plume on the bottom. We're gonna get rid of any hackle feathers here, guys, it's gonna work. A soft hackle. Okay. Just something that's got some, it still looks pretty wide down at the base, but soft and supple so that it can be actually wrapped around the hook Shank.

I'm going to tie this in from the butt end. This time, like so can I get a thread wrap behind In front? Behind in front. Okay. Making sure that stem is very secure. Before I trim that out, I wanna make sure that it is not gonna go anywhere. . Okay. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grab a pair of hackle pliers. This is an important step here cuz this is a very small feather.

You want to come in here and grab just the very tip with the hackle feather. And now we are gonna start some wraps forward. Okay? And as I go forward, I'm pulling those pieces of the feather back down the fly so that I'm not stacking on top. Because I don't want to not use any of those. So taking some thread wraps behind in front. Again, making sure that's not gonna go anywhere . Okay. I'm gonna pull all of those little pieces of the feather forward now so I don't lock any of them down forward.

I can come in here and trim out that tiny little stem, any of the pieces that went forward. I can also get rid of those and then I'm gonna come up here and coax them to go down the edges of the fly. Okay, so you can see. Then it almost looks flat on top. That's what I want cuz I'm gonna tie in one more material up here and that's gonna be a small mallard flank.

So you see we have just a couple different ones here. Nothing special cause we're actually not really gonna use the feather itself per se. But I'm gonna peel a bunch down so that I'm not using any of that fluff. And I want to be tying in kind of the top stem, top of the tip of the stem, cuz that's where it's a little bit softer.

And I'm gonna get the stem itself to stay nice and tight. It's gonna tie in long, it's gonna look funny, but just bear with me. We'll fix it up. Okay. So I'm gonna get my thread back just a smidge so I have space to tie this. , I'm gonna lay that right on top. And tying in basically right to where I left the peeled off portion.

So just the bear stem is tying in itself. Take a few wraps to tie that in. Okay. I'm not gonna put any wraps underneath that stem. I'm gonna do a little bit of a secure thing here with my UV resin at the end, or any resin for that matter. I'm gonna slide my scissors up underneath the stem so it clears the eye out and trim it off.

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So then from the top, you're left with something that looks like that. Now I'm gonna do a quick whip finish here. And then just a little bit of resin, so I'm not gonna go crazy with my whip finish cause I don't need to do more than anything. I don't wanna trap any of those hackle fibers.

Trim that out. I'm gonna trim that one little piece that's hanging forward. Now I'm gonna. My solarez bone dry. I like this stuff. It's super thin. It's gonna soak right into the thread wraps, like a Sally Hansens, just that this you can cure at the end and it dries really quick. Okay? So I like to reinforce it by putting just a small drop on top of there.

And what that's gonna do is gonna bind that stem down to the materials underneath, and it's gonna keep it from wanting to go all over the place. So once I get that good and cured, now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bring my scissors underneath and I'm gonna cut. Lifting up the feather. I'm gonna bring this in underneath and try to cut off this feather fairly close.

I'm trying to leave just a little triangle that doesn't extend much past the hackle itself. Okay. So you can see that it sits right up there. That just gives us that little bit of a white spot there, little triangle. You got the right shape if you did it like. And that is supposed to, basically the original version of this was meant to look like a cased caddis .

I think it does a pretty spectacular job of that as well as looking like a lot of other things tied in different sizes and and even colors. Okay guys, this is the Zug bug. Hope you're able to get through this one with me. This is definitely an oldie but a goody. Keep this one in your box as well as we are going to probably use it and catch some fish with it.

My name is Tim Hepper here with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters, and Thursday Night Live Fly Tying. We wanna say thanks to Rocky Mountain Fly Shop. 
All right guys. Take care.

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Author

Tim Hepworth @timothyhepworth