The Wooly Worm fly is a great wet fly or nymph that is fished under the water surface. It is a popular fly for freshwater game fish. The fly can be fished in streams, rivers, ponds and lakes for trout, bass, bream, perch, etc. Tying this pattern in a variety of styles and colors to imitate large nymphs such as stoneflies, dragonflies, damselflies, or hellgrammites makes this a very for many species.
The Wooly Worm pattern has its origination possibly in the Ozarks as a bass fly back in the 1920s but the created is unknown. Dan Martinez is credited with making this fly popular sometime in the 1950s.

The fly is tied on a streamer hook in the sizes from a six down to a 12; using a 6/0 thread, the tail is a piece of red yarn, the body is wrapped chenille in black, yellow, or green, and with a grizzly hackle. Sometimes the Wooly Worm might have a gold wire rib to increase the durability and other options might be to add lead-free wire, a bead head, or even a cone head to add some weight for the fly.

I decided to tie up a few for an evening of some yellow perch fishing so my recipe for this adventure is a Mustad Streamer Hook in a Size 12, thread is Danville 210 denier in Black, tail is red wool yarn roughly a quarter length of the hook shank, body is medium black chenille, a grizzly hackle to match the hook gap, and rib silver wire in size brassy to protect the hackle.

I use a combination of fishing methods the Woolly Worm when fishing a lake. After casting the fly I will let it dead sink as it slowly sinks near weed beds or lily pads. If I don’t get a response with that method I would change it up to either a twitch retrieve, a hand-twist retrieve, or a strip retrieve to determine what the fish prefer. One this evening I managed two fallfish and one small smallmouth bass while targeting yellow perch.

So if you are considering to target some bluegills, sunfish, perch, bass and even trout consider going back to tie a few classic Woolly Worms for that fly box of yours and give it a try for some fun.