Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Just Posted: The Wonder Bug as tied by Fred Bridge

In my previous blog post I mentioned a few flies I'd received from my friend from Pennsylvannia, Fred Bridge.  I've posted a closeup photo and the tying sequence for one of these flies, the Wonder Bug

If I could pick only two materials with which to tie nymphs, I would pick (1) lead and (2) peacock herl.  Add some hackle and you've got the Wonderbug.

Check it out here: http://www.fishingwithflies.com/WonderBug.htm

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I first came across this pattern in an old Pennsylvania Angler magazine. In that article, it was called the Anywhere, Anytime Nymph...as soon as I saw this one posted, I thought about that article because I found the Anywhere Anytime name appropriate.

As to the age of the article, I can only guess it was probably the early to mid 1960's. The original pattern called for a black body. I always thought of it as a spin off of a black wooly worm with clipped hackle. I believe the pattern's originator was Charles Knight of Virginia. Substituting different colors for the body led to an eventual use of peacock herl...it works great for me in PA too, especially early season but is also a good searching pattern later on.

Bill (trublubug@msn.com)

Peter F. said...

Hi Bill, Good to hear from you. It's great to get a bit of history with any fly, even one as simple as this one.

Peter F. said...

Hi again Bill, I just did a google search for "Flies by Charles Knight of Virginia" and found the Anywhere-Anytime Nymph also labeled as "C.K. Nymph" for Charles Knight, on this Web site:

http://retiredguysworld.com/Flies.aspx

In this case the body was indeed black, made from a mixture with a mixture of black wool and seal.