SMB Bug

Tied by Gary Meier

This fly is the result of “dinking” at the tying bench.  It came about as I was tying up some big yellow and olive wooly buggers that I have found effective for smallmouth in the St Louis river.  I was thinking what a waste it is to toss away most of the marabou feather after just using the end for the bugger tail.  Hence the dinking.  Turns out the fly that came of my dinking is extremely effective for smallmouth.  I’ve been calling it the ITAB (Is this a bugger?), but when my wife saw the fly I was tying for the swap, she asked, “Isn’t that the fly you catch all the smubs (her acronymic pronunciation of SMB -my short hand for smallmouth bass) on?”  When I replied in the affirmative, she said, “You should call it the SMB Bug.”  I think she’s right.  Here’s the recipe.

Hook:  Daiichi 1750 or equivalent in sizes 2 – 8 (Swap fly is a 6)

Thread:  yellow or chartreuse

Tail:  yellow marabou blood feather and peacock crystal flash

Rib:  gold tinsel braid

Wing:  peacock crystal flash

Hackle:  olive marabou fibers

Weight:  .025 non-lead wire or diameter suitable for the hook size

Tying Instructions:

1.      Bend down hook barb (Makes hooking and releasing much easier!)

2.      Tie on thread at hook eye and wrap back to barb.

3.      Wrap thread forward about a hook eye and tie in wire.

4.      Wrap wire so that it covers the middle half of hook (don’t make my common mistake of crowding the eye right off the bat!)

5.      Wrap thread over wire forward and back to hold it securely in place.

6.      Tie in tinsel braid at hook bend, and hang it out of the way.

7.      Tie in back end of marabou blood feather at the hook barb, and take three or four tight wraps to keep it there.  The tail should be about the length of the hook shank.  Leave the remainder of the feather laid over the hook shank – you’ll he using it for the body.

8.      Tie in a Goldilocks clump of peacock crystal flash over the top of and of the same length as the marabou tail.

9.      Trim crystal flash close to thread, and securely wrap thread over the “stubs”.

10.  Grasp loose end of the marabou feather and pull it back to where it is tied in.

11.  Twist marabou into a chenille.

12.  Wrap marabou chenille around tying thread for strength, wrap forward to a point just past the wire weight, and tie off with three or four firm wraps.  Don’t worry if you have fibers sticking out of the chenille.  They’ll just add to the fly’s action.

13.  Firmly counter-wind the tinsel braid over the marabou body, and tie off.

14.  Tie in same size clump of crystal flash for the wing.  Wing should be length of the body.

15.  Trim crystal flash close to thread and wrap thread over stubs.

16.   Wax about 6 inches of tying thread with a sticky dubbing wax.

17.  Cut off about two inches of fibers from the stem of an olive marabou blood feather.

18.  Lay the fibers on the upper part of the tying tread so that they stick to it, and the tapered end of the fibers extend toward the bend of the hook with that end being approximately long enough to extend beyond the end of the tail. 

19.  Form a dubbing loop with the waxed tying thread, and wind the thread forward to head.

20.  Spin dubbing loop to securely capture the marabou fibers, and wrap the result forward, combing the fibers toward the bend of the hook as you wrap.

21.  Tie off the loop, and wrap, and whip finish the head.

22.  Lacquer the head, and c’est viola!  The SMB Bug is finished, and you have used all of the parts of the marabou feather that usually get tossed in the garbage.

When you get your swap fly, you’re probably going to say, “Gary, this thing is a mess!”  You’d be right, but that’s how it’s supposed to look, and this mess will pull smallmouth when none my other flies will.  By way, don’t think each of the SMB Bugs you tie has to look precisely the same.  As you work your way down the stem of the olive marabou feather you are putting in the dubbing loop, the quality of the fibers changes, and so does the way the hackle looks when it is wrapped.  Don’t worry about it – all the incarnations work equally well.  It also works well for northerns, and, much to my chagrin, walleyes.