Creek Addict

The Walt’s worm is a standard for most Pennsylvania fly fisherman. This fly produces very well on limestone creeks and any time you have high water that will wash Cranefly larva into the drift. However, with the popularity of European nymphing and the advent of countless new nymph patterns, its easy to forget about old standards like the Walt’s worm. Although the original is generally too light to serve as a good anchor fly for Euro nymphing, this fly is easily modified for our purposes. All it takes to modify this fly is some .030 lead. This works out well since its easy to hide lots of lead in this fly. I also have something special that makes this fly look even better, I just received some special made dubbing brushes from my friend Alain Barthelemy. Good luck with this very simple to tie, highly productive fly.

Walt’s Worm
Material List:
Hook – TMC 5263 size 10 (Can be tied in a variety of sizes and don’t be afraid to go big, Cranefly larva get very large)
.030 round lead
6/0 tan Uni thread (8/0 on smaller flies)
Dubbing brush made from hare’s ear dubbing (You can just dub a body from hare’s ear dubbing but the dubbing brushes makes for a much “buggier” body)

 
Place the hook in the vise.

Add a drop of glue on the hook shank.

Add a lead underbody to the hook.

Start your thread behind the eye of the hook.

Build a tapered body and cover the lead.

Tie in your dubbing brush.

Form a thick body by using touching turns with the brush.

Finish forming the body and tie off the brush.

Cut off the brush and form a neat head.

Whip finish and your Walt’s worm is complete.

The naturals.

The imitation.