The Zoolly Worm.

The Zoolly Worm 1.

The Blood Shot Zoolly Worm.

The Bird's Nest Zoolly

  This is my version of a wet fly variant pattern that originate from the famous "Woolly Worm" and the "Zulu". Either one is correct or incorrect, Because non of the materials that make up the 2 patterns mention above were use like wool, silver tinsel, mallard etc, But the fly does looks like a cross between a couple of patterns. The reason for tying this fly pattern is because I've read some article online about a certain fishing flies that were being banned from use because they were making such a killing on the trout, ( Booby, Blob, Alexandra etc ) That the river authority has to make up rules to stop them from being used. One of the main reason mention was that the trout will swallow a certain flies very deep down their throat and that will seriously harm or kill the fish. Eventually the dead fish numbers will add up over time and will put even more pressure on the already sensitive natural trout populations. In my opinion no fishing flies should be banned. The flies made for fly fishing are meant to be small because fly tiers are replicating very small insects & crustaceans or nymphs, the probability of a fish swallowing a small fly deep in the throat has a pretty high percentage of doing so, and not to mention that the fisherman fishing skills & attitudes has to be added to the equation as well. When the fisherman are using barb-less hooks & release more of their catch and handle the fish with care, it's possible that everyone can enjoy the sport of fishing for many years to come, we all need to do our part in protecting our environment & natural resource for the future generations. OK. Lets get back to tying flies. The zoolly is a very simple fly pattern to tie and probably a lot of  fly tiers know it already, but I'll list the materials and tying steps below anyway, for anyone who would like to try it out.!


 Materials & tying steps

The Zoolly Worm

• Hooks- wet or nymph size 10 to 18 Mustad 3906B
• Tail- soft hackle or schlappen and marabou
• Body- ostrich herl or dubbing (reinforce with wire or tying thread) optional
• Hackle- grizzly bugger streamer hackles
• Collar- ice dub or diamond dub ( brush back with velcros ) 
• Head- tying thread & head cement
• Thread- Uni 8/0 or 6/0

1- Put hook of choice in vise & start thread right behind hook eye, continue thread in touching turns to the barb or just before the bend. (leave a long thread tag if decide to use thread as a binding wire) Optional.

2- Tie on some soft hackle fibres just shy of hook shank length & tie on some marabou the same length around the soft hackle for tail. Tie on a piece of wire about 4 or 5 inch long, if no thread tag's been used. Now tie on the grizzly bugger hackle tip first to get a slight taper. Finally tie on a piece of  medium & long black ostrich herl for the body.

3- After all the materials is secure, bind down all loose material while bringing thread back to the collar area about 2 to 3 mm behind hook eye. The first material to be wounded is the ostrich herl & tie off at the collar area. The next material is the grizzly bugger hackle palmered around ostrich herl. dull side faces the rear. about 5 to 7 turns & tie off. The last thing is the medium wire or tying thread wound over the hackle & tie off at collar.

4- After everything is secure at collar, use a piece of velcro gently brush hackle & ostrich herl together and toward the tail. Dub some peacock or ice dub on tying thread and make a small collar covering tie off points.

Use velcro brush loose some ice dud to blend with hackle. Finally use tying thread to wrap a small & neat head & whip finish. Put on 2 coats of head cement and the zoolly is complete.! 

5- For the Blood shot zoolly, the collar materials must be mix with some peacock & red ice dub or red synthetic materials to achieved the blood shot effect over body.

Blood Shot Zoolly