2026 - March Fly Tying

 

Fly Tying   Greg is under the weather this month, so I will fill in for him.  I am bringing back an article from about 2008 that John Gordon wrote on Ed Elkins' Green Wooly.  This was the go to fly for club trips on lakes. Any fly that Ed likes has got to be good.  This is the way that Ed originally tied the Green Wooly.  Recently I have seen him tie it on a jig hook now that the popularity of jig hooks has sky rocketed. Dave Hoover

Ed Elkins' Green Wooly Hook  Tiemco 2302 (size #12) Bead: Red Glass Bead Thread:  Olive 3/0 or 6/0 Tailing: Copper Krystal Flash and natural color (about medium dun) Turkey Marabou Hackle:  Olive Grizzly saddle hackle Body:  Olive Antron or Darlon #6 Olive 1.  Place red glass bead on the hook.  Start thread and wrap back to just above the hook barb. 2.   Fold copper Krystal flash strand over and over until you have enough for 8 strands. Tie in Krystal flash on top at the bend. 3.  Tie in the first clump of natural color turkey marabou on the side for the tail.  Keep this short in length and heavy about 5/16 inch past the hook bend.  Tie in a second clump of natural color turkey marabou on the other side.  Make sure the Krystal Flash is in the center between the two tail clumps of marabou. 4.  Select an olive grizzly hackle and tie it in tip first.  Be sure to hold the tailing materials when tying in the hackle at the bend. 5.  Tie in and wrap forward the olive Antron body and tie off. 6.  Take 2 or 3 close wraps of the hackle then palmer wrap the hackle forward to the red grass bead head.  Tie off and whip finish behind the bead head. 7.  Clip the copper Krystal Flash tail at a couple of different lengths. TIP from Jim Foster:  If the glass bead is lost (can break at times) the fly is up to 50% less effective.  I use red thread.  This leaves a small but important red attractor at the front.  This fly has worked outstandingly fishing it streamer style.  Trolling this fly behind a boat with a type 6 full sink line works very well also but you must impart acton in the fly.  For boat trolling method, use leader tapered to 3X fluorocarbon tippet (15 to 20 ft. total), and full fly line or more length out of the fly rod. Tip from Dave Hoover:  Several years ago the club had a trip to Sylvan Lake.  I was consistently getting hits on the fly, but no hook ups. Just before the trip I tied several of these flies with a stinger hook.  I used a small red egg hook with the bend of the hook even with the end of the marabou tail.  I used a light fire wire line to attach the stinger and cut off the main hook at the bend.  No more missed strikes and 63 brookies later the trip was over.