Woolly Worm – a horrible looking grub that is awesome

Woolly Worm

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Tying Instructions

1. Attach the thread to the hook shank behind the eye and lay a thread base to the bend of the hook.

2. Attach the tail. Usually this is a piece of red yarn which extends about half the gape past the bend. Secure the yarn to the top of the shank for the full length of the shank. On the original, Martinez used Grizzly fibers. Secure the butt ends to the top of the shank and return the thread to the bend of the hook..

3. Attach a piece of chennille at the bend of the hook by the inner core thread.

4. Attach a saddle hackle by the butt just in front of the chennile with the dull side of the hackle facing forward. The hackle should be one size less than the hook since it will be palmered over the body.

5. Wrap the chenille forward to just behind the eye. Make sure to give a full wrap of chenille behind the hackle before proceeeding forward. Tie down.

6. Wrap the hackle forward, palmer style, taking care not to catch the hackle fibers. Note how the fibers go forward. Secure with thread wraps and cut off the tag. Whip Finish.

 

 

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 5263 #8-12
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Black Chenille
Hackle	Grizzly Saddle Hackle
Tail	Grizzly Spade Hackle barbs

Don Martinez

Woolly Worm

The Woolly Worm utilizes a palmered hackle along the entire hook shank which has been documented as early as the 1500’s during Napolean’s time. According to A.J. McClane (The Practical Fly Fisherman, 1975), Izaak Walton described the fly in “The Compleat Angler’ (1653) as a simulation of a caterpillar known as the Woolly Bear. One variation, the Palmer Fly, was shown on the cover of R. Brookes book, “The Art of Angling” (1770).

Don Martinez

Sometime in the 1920’s, this pattern was introduced into the United States from England and was used as a Smallmouth Bass Fly in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. Don Martinez, a West Yellowstone Fly Shop owner from California, received this pattern from a friend in Arkansas sometime in the late 1930’s and created variations that he called “Woolly Worms”. Don Martinez is generally regarded as the individual who developed the modern day Woolly Worm for trout fishing. In the 1940, he wrote to Preston Jennings notes on the pattern:

“This horrible looking grub, Woolly Worm, is a made over bass and crappie fly. Properly fished it is murderous all season long. I made and sold as many of these things as all other flies combined last summer. I hate the looks of them and consider them more a lure than a fly, but they have had a boom for the two seasons last past with no sign of a let up. They should be used only in still or very slow water, fished deep, with a twitching of the line by the left hand. The movement of the hackle is what gets, em, suggesting perhaps the waving breathing apparatus of the may-fly nymphs and others.”

Inspired the Woolly Bugger

The original woolly worm designed by Martinez had a black chenille body with a Grizzly hackle wound along the body and a Grizzly hackle tip for a tail. Martinez attached the hackle at the bend of the hook by the butt and wound it forward with the dull or concave side facing the hook eye. By pointing the fibers forward, the hackle would undulate during the retrieve. Rather then using red hackles for the tail, many woolly worms today use a red wool yarn tag. During the 1950’s this fly was used throughout the west as an imitation of giant stones, dragon flys, crane flies, etc. His Woolly Worm patterns eventually became the inspiration of the Woolly Bugger.

Contemporary Patterns

The body material has been changed on more contemporary patterns of woolly worms. The pattern is popular on Pyramid Lake outside of Reno, Nevada for the large Lahontan Cutthroats. Often, these flies are tied on a size 2 or 4 – 3X or 4X long streamer hook. Estaz or Crystal Chenille is used rather than Chenille. This provides increased action and attraction to the fly. The Hackle has been changed as well. Many of the contemporary patterns utilize a webby hackle such as a Hen Cape Hackle or Rooster Saddle to allow the fibers to flow back towards the rear similar to a bugger pattern. Within these newer patterns, the tail has been omitted completely or substituted with the basal marabou from the saddle hackle.

Variations

Red/Grizzly Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263 #8-12
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Red Chenille
Hackle	Grizzly Saddle Hackle
Tail	Red Wool Yarn

Tan/Black Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263 #8-12
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Tan Chenille
Hackle	Black Saddle Hackle
Tail	Red Wool Yarn

Yellow/Badger Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263 #8-12
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Yellow Chenille
Hackle	Silver Badger Saddle Hackle
Tail	Red Wool Yarn

Olive/Brown Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263 #8-12
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Dark Olive Chenille
Hackle	Brown Saddle Hackle
Tail	Red Wool Yarn

Pearl/White Estaz Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 2-4
Thread	Veevus White 6/0
Head	Veevus White 6/0
Body	Pearl Estaz, Medium
Hackle	Whiting Rooster Cape, White

Chartreuse/White Estaz Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 2-4
Thread	Veevus White 6/0
Head	Veevus White 6/0
Body	Pearl Chartreuse Estaz
Hackle	Whiting Rooster Cape, White

Martini Olive Woolly Worm

Hook	TMC 5263, sizes 2-4
Thread	Danville Red 6/0
Head	Danville Red 6/0
Body	Root Beer Estaz
Hackle	Chinese Saddle Hackle, Olive

Chartreuse/Black Estaz Woolly Worm

Hook	Daiichi 2220 2-4
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Head	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Pearl Chartreuse Estaz
Hackle	Chinese Saddle Hackle, Black
Tail	Chartreuse Marabou