Tying the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly
Ole’ Mr. Wiggly keeps fly tying simple and surface eats exciting. This fly is quick to tie, easy to customize, and fishes a whole lot like throwing a dry fly. Originally developed by the guys at Tight Lines Fly Fishing Company, the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly is a perfect fly for skinny, clear water when smallmouth just want a little snack.
If you like surface eats, buggy flies, and watching smallies sip on foam, you’re gonna like this one.
Here’s how to tie it up!
Ole’ Mr. Wiggly Materials
The materials for this fly are pretty simple and you probably have most of them lying around already.
- Stinger Hook (size 2-8)
- My favorite is the Gamakatsu B10, but any longer shank hook will do great.
- You can tie in a range of sizes, I like 4s and 6s the best
- Foam (2-3mm)
- Depending on what size hook you’re using, foam should be on the thin side.
- For smaller Wigglies, use 2mm and if you want a beefier guy, go 3 mm.
- Dubbing of Choice
- My go-to is Ice Dub, but any sort of dubbing will work great. Ice Dub has a little flash in it which I like but if you want a more natural look roll with regular dubbing of your choice.
- Rubber Legs
- Medium Round Rubber is my standard, but sili legs will work great as well. You just want something that will dangle and dance as it drifts through the water.
Ole’ Mr. Wiggly Tying Steps
Tying the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly isn’t all that complicated, especially after you tie a few. Working with foam can be a little bit tricky and trimming can take a little practice, but even if it’s not perfect it’ll still catch fish.
Measure and Tie in Foam
Before we mess with the foam, make sure you have a good thread base down. This gives the foam something to really grab onto and will help prevent slippage. Typically a thread base on other flies aren’t necessarily essential, but with Ole’ Mr. Wiggly flies it’s vital to have.
Measure your foam so it’s about the width of the hook gap. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but this helps our flies be more consistent.
Now take a 4-5 inch piece of foam, double it over, and secure it near the bend of the hook. There should be just a touch of the head reaching past the eye of the hook.
Create Dubbing Body Segments
Now we’re gonna give the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly it’s body segments. To do so, throw on a little bit of dubbing and move your thread forward slightly, maybe an 1/8th of an inch or so. After that, secure in more foam with vertical wraps. You’ll see your first little body segment appear.
We’re gonna repeat this step 3-4 more times, depending on how many segments you like in your fly. Do your best to tie these segments with vertical wraps so the body segments are nice and clean. Again, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does help build very clean flies. The fish probably won’t care, but you will!
Tie in Legs
After we have our body segments, take 2-3 legs and tie them in on each side of the fly. You can keep them pretty long to start and adjust later as needed.
Typically I like to keep the legs longer as it allows for more action in the water. If legs get stubby, they don’t move nearly as much and with the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly, it’s about the wiggles of those legs. Keep them long and let them wiggle!
Tie in Hot Spot (optional)
The Ole’ Mr. Wiggly can be a little tough to see on the water, especially if you’re tying small naturally colored versions. A hot spot (brightly colored piece of foam) on top of the fly helps you see the fly much better in my opinion. The fish will be looking from underneath, so it won’t affect how they see the fly. It’s not necessary, but a like an orange hot spot so I can more easily track the fly as it drifts.
Glue, Cut, and Trim as Necessary
After a whip finish, it’s time to glue, cut, and trim the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly.
First step is to glue down the tail as those pieces of foam are still separated. A drop of glue and a 2-3 second pinch will secure those pieces together with ease.
As that dries, clip your legs to their desired length. I like to make sure all the legs are an even length for a little more natural presentation, but I doubt it matters to the fish. Just make sure that they’re reasonably similar and the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly will do just fine. If your legs haven’t been separated, this is a good time to do so.
After the tail is dry and glued together well, trim it as you like. I like it to have a little pointed tail that extends about half a hook shank beyond the hook bend. This is totally up to you, but at least a little bit of rounding of the edges makes the fly look natural, which is what we’re going for with this fly.
Ole’ Mr. Wiggly Tips
Match the Hatch
The Ole’ Mr. Wiggly is a great fly to match the local forage of your body of water. It’s small and customizable, perfect for imitating any color or size of prey.
For example, there are a ton of dragonflies and damselflies in my local river, so I like to tie the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly in blues and yellows. I feel like this resembles what the fish are feeding on naturally and gives me confidence that the fish will key in on this color as they hunt the shallows or surface.
So take a minute to think about what you want to imitate. Whether it be grasshoppers, crickets, small frogs, or dragonflies, tie your flies in those colors and let it ride. If in doubt, tie a few up in standard colors- black, olive, and blue, and you’ll have a variety to choose from depending on the day.
Do Less with Ole’ Mr. Wiggly
Fishing the Ole’ Mr. Wiggly is essentially dry fly fishing for smallmouth bass. So fish it as if you were throwing a dry fly for trout!
Toss it upstream and let it drift naturally. Make mends as necessary and maybe give it a little twitch here and there but do not overwork this fly. If you do anything with it, gentle pulls that wiggle the legs a little bit is all you need.
Mr. Wiggly’s legs and profile do most of the work for you. It may be tempting to want to chug this thing along like a popper, but it works best with less!