Tie Talk: Hair-Leg Wooly Worm

When I woke up this morning the temperature read 0 degrees. In my mind that means anglers are heading to warmer climes (if you’re lucky), ice fishing, or a more likely scenario – tying a ton this time of year.

Today we have Jason Borger explaining how he ties the Hair-Leg Wooly Worm — a seriously buggy looking fly that seems like it could work for a number of different species from trout and carp or even bonefish. Jason says:

“This is a little excerpt from a DVD that I did for a introductory fly tying kit a few years back. The pattern is tied a bit differently than its name implies. It eschews the traditional wrapped hackle in trade for a dubbing-loop spun hair hackle. The result is a fly that looks like a woolly cross between a stonefly nymph and a chunky larval imitation. This pattern, tied in all-black (and with some alternate materials), caught the biggest New Zealand rainbow that I’ve ever had to hand. It’s also done solid work for me on rivers all over North America. And go ahead and change up the materials you see shown here. Try mohair and calf-tail, or whatever suits you. Also try some of these in rust, chocolate, and even tan and white. Go for a pink and tan combo, toss some dumbbell eyes on it, and you could probably catch bonefish with it (I’ll have to try that myself).”