{"id":14882,"date":"2022-06-28T02:08:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/?p=14882"},"modified":"2022-06-30T05:23:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T03:23:36","slug":"buggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/28\/buggers\/","title":{"rendered":"Buggers!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I never seem to have enough buggers. They’ve always been a fly which I tie the night before a trip, so at best, I’ll have 6 nice ones in my box – but I’ve often been reduced thrashed old shite. They’re such a useful fly and can be fished anywhere, so finally, I bit the bullet and set out to tie a box of them. Although, initially that wasn’t my intention – I started by tying a few for a friend, then a few for me – then, when a bad cold went through the house, I found myself with time to tie and a new fly-box to fill. What I ended up with was a box of about 120 buggers from size 12 with 2.4mm beads up to size 6 with 4.6mm beads – all on Fulling Mill Competition Heavyweight hooks. I generally like to avoid starkly contrasting colours but since I was tying a comprehensive collection I tied a bit of everything. They’re all tied with possum bodies and marabou tails. I’ve been using this combination for many years now and I find it to be excellent. Rabbit is also very good in the body, but years ago I lucked onto a load of possum in lots of colours and that’s really what set this combination in stone – I had lots of it, and it worked. I don’t add much bling or rubber legs, just one or two strands of flashy stuff on each side or none at all. Of course they’re far from the original pattern. No chenille, no palmered hackle but if a fly has a marabou tail then it’s in the bugger family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last weekend I put them to the test. Myself and Brayden went to Mackenzie Country for a couple of days on the lakes – both of us trying to shake off a cold. Day one would have been good but there were 5 other anglers on the lake which made it harder to find good water. We got a few fish none the less, we just had to work a bit harder to get them. The scenery was really spectacular though. In winter, the snow really shows you just how big and dramatic these mountainous valleys are. My eyes were regularly taken off the water to enjoy the scenes. At the end of the day a couple of hot whiskeys were most welcome! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 2 – Fog! The fog never left the water all day. This was a bit frustrating because the skies were clear above it and sun was trying unsuccessfully to break through all day. There were a few fish cruising the edges in the morning but they were just hard enough to see to make them very difficult to approach. We worked hard to land a couple for the day and we covered lots of lake edge to get them. June on the lakes is generally hard because the majority of fish are up the rivers spawning. I don’t mind that it’s tough. There are still enough fish about to make for a good days fishing and I can’t wait to get back up there.. The new buggers did their thing anyway! I lost a couple but replaced them yesterday..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still have a heap of photos from local fishing over the winter to date but they’ll have to wait for the next blog. It’s just too many photos otherwise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’d like to get in touch about guided fishing over winter or next season please get in touch! ronan@sexyloops.com<\/em><\/strong> or visit my website<\/a>. Tight Lines, Ronan..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to my fly patterns on Fulling Mill here<\/a> – and a link to my latest article for the fulling mill blog here -Winter in New Zealand.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tying a box of flies is a big effort, but worth it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It will be great to have a bugger for every occasion!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dark blue and black – This has been great over the years. “The Bruiser”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My 4 year old daughter, Adeline, chose the colours for
this one. “The Bumble Bee” she calls it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Very proud of her bumble bees!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Getting ready for a lake trip.. Buggers and sinking lines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buggers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brayden working a likely bay..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cold but spectacular..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Certainly one of the joys of winter are the snow covered mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lovely – that fence is a great spot for a fish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mountains looming over head..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Blind fishing out and sight fishing in. A good tactic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The fish fence!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hard to find fish – mainly because there were 5 other anglers there – but we got a few.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Time for a hot whiskey!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Day 2. Fishing in the fog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My new box of flies in its natural environment!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This one should do! Lots of smelt and cockabullies here. The main food item in a weedless lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We worked stream mouths in search of fish..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Winter flats! Not many fish on them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Natures patterns.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The search continues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The sun tried to come out a few times but never succeeded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A black stilt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brayden works a gutter..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One nice rainbow for me just after Brayden lost a solid brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The fog makes sighting difficult but it has it’s own charm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If the sun was allowed to come out the sight fishing might have been okay. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lunch stop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back to business..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brayden <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Time to call it a day..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never seem to have enough buggers. They’ve always been a fly which I tie the night before a trip, so at best, I’ll have 6 nice ones in my box – but I’ve often been reduced thrashed old shite. They’re such a useful fly and can be fished anywhere, so finally, I bit the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1182,901,1311,1199,718,1222,1224,874,1122,936,357],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14882"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14899,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14882\/revisions\/14899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}