Flash-A-Buggers

The development of the Flash-A-Bugger can be traced to anglers such as Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton, who presented flies with palmered chicken hackle to fish in the rivers of 17th century Britain. Izaak Walton specifically mentions the Soldier Palmer in his well known book The Complete Angler, published 1653. In the modern era, palmered wet flies such as the Woolly Worm became very popular. In the 1960's & 70's nearly every fly fisher had several wooly worms in their fly box. When we opened our store in 1981, we carried wooly worms in four colors. Now the Wooly Worm has been replaced by the Wooly Bugger or the even more popular Flash-A-Bugger.

The Woolly Bugger is attributed to Russell Blessing of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who's dressing of the fly was evolved from various smallmouth bass patterns, with the intention of representing the Dobsonfly larva. The date of origin is popularly recorded as 'early 1970s', though Ed Dentry of the Rocky Mountain News suggests 1967 as the date.

In the 1980's, Umpqua Feather Merchants started marketing a variation of the Wooly Bugger called the Flash-A-Bugger. This fly has a lateral line of Flashabou tied along the sides of the body and extending down the sides of the marabou tail. The Flash-A-Bugger has virtually replaced the Wooly Bugger in nearly everyone's fly collection is tied in many colors and sizes.

The Flash-A-Bugger is one of the most popular streamers in use today to represent a wide range of aquatic organisms such as, leeches, baitfish, tadpoles, damselfly larvae, dragonfly larvae and crayfish. It has been used on a wide variety of fresh water fish such as, trout, bass, panfish, pike, steelhead and salmon. It has also caught bonefish and tarpon.