Ugly Killer Boob (Step-by-step)

It is a stupid name-play I ripped off from Frank Sawyer. And although I can never remember to have thought much of the the Scandinavian fly-pattern "Superpuppan", it has still been a bit of an influence for this pattern.

The fly is by all means ugly, but it is just as much a quick box-filler and a killer fly to imitate the surface-hanging caddis pupae. All materials are cheap and pretty common, and it does not require much finesse and techniques; A pinch of dry-fly dubbing or a length of bug yarn, one hackle feather from a cheap Chinese furnace rooster cape and some hares ear dubbing.

Ugly Killer Boob

Hook: Standard dry-fly hook (suit the size to what you are trying to imitate) Thread: Black

Body: Dry-fly dubbing or Super bug yarn Hackle: Furnace or dark cree (one turn behind and one turn in front of the thorax) Thorax: Hares ear dubbing, sightly dark

Head: Black

First tie on your thread. I had to use UNI 8/0 in Fiery Brown for this fly due to being out of black thread, but the head of the fly is black, and therefore the thread should also be so.

Make the body. Tans, yellows and green nuances are most common colors. For this fly I used dubbing, but Lureflash Super Bug Yarn is great for this fly. If you don't have the Lureflash Super Bug Yarn, I would suggest other kinds of dry fly dubbings; Kapok, Fly-Rite, Superfine and so on, but dub it rough. (Cul de canard can aslo be used) When tying the body, make sure you have it slightly cigar-shaped, and make it hairy; a light sweep with a Velcro brush might help if you use dubbing or yarn.

The hackle, as I mentioned is from a cheap Chinese rooster neck. I prefer Furnace hackle for these, but a dark cree can aslo be used. Also notice that I don't strip the hackle stem, but rather trim them with scissors. This will make the fly a lot more durable and reduce the chance of the hackle slipping out. Proportion wise it should be a good size larger than the hook you are tying on. Use your hackle gauge for reference.

The hackle is tied with only one turn around the hook shank. I only want a very few fibers sticking out; after all, we're tying a sparse caddis pupae, not a Salmon Bomber. Tie in the tip end of the hackle first with a few turns of thread with the hackletip pointing forward, then fold it backward and tie a few more turns of thread over before you trim of the tip end. This way the hackle is well secured. NOTE: Don't throw away the left over part of the hackle!

The dubbing for the thorax should be common hares ear dubbing, rather dark, and with guard hairs left in. Other dark grey-brown'ish natural dubbings may also be used.

Dub a thorax of the hares ear dubbing.

Now for the left over part of the hackle. Again, notice that I trim of the bottom fibers rather then stripping them of.

Tie in the hackle again.

Same procedure as the latter; one turn of hackle is sufficient.

I wait to cut away the remaining hackle tip until I'm done with the head, so that I can do the fold-over thing when securing it with the thread. If you don't use a black thread you have to color the thread using a black permanent marker. A black head is in my opinion just as important factor of this fly as the rest. Also make the head large enough, this is a scruffy imitation, not a photo-fly to represent your mad skills of making micro small heads. Finish of with a few turns whip-finish and add a few coats of varnish. Your fly is done!

Give this fly a light brush of your favorite floatant gel and fish it either dead-drift or with a handtwist to create some movement.

# # # # #

All photos are taken by me and shall not be used without permission.