The Big Black Ugly

Although I’ve been tying all my own flies for well over 40 years, I’m not a particularly good or precise flytier. Most of my flies are serviceable and will catch fish. None of them would ever win best of show in a tying contest. Even a tying contest between a bunch of guys with duct tape over one eye..

Which is why I like relatively simple fly designs or flies that actually become more effective if they look a little rough coming out of the vise. No loop-wing emergers for me. Or jointed body Hexagenia nymphs or knotted leg grasshopper patterns for that matter. While, with great effort, I’ve tied a few classic salmon fly brooch pins for my wife from time to time, my tying overall is far more utilitarian than artistic. I mostly tie to fish and seldom undertake a fly with more than four or five steps from bare hook to finished product or a fly that would take me more than about 10 minutes to tie. I have fish to catch; I can’t be sitting at the vise all day.

Happily, some of the simplest flies are also among the most versatile and effective. Clunky deer hair terrestrials and simple gob of muskrat or hare’s ear fur on a hook nymphs among many others, come to mind as examples of uncomplicated, easy-to-tie but very effective flies.

Another good example is my favorite fly for smallmouth bass, a simple black fur leech I call the Big Black Ugly. Dead drifted or actively worked in the flow, this is one of the deadliest bass flies I know of and I can tie a dozen of them in an hour, which makes me like it even more. And it is effective on virtually any fish that swims in fresh water and has been known to take a fly.

I’ve caught northerns up to five or six pounds out of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee River on the Big Black Ugly fished on a slow retrieve in the weedy backwaters off the main current flow. My best pike taken this way probably would have sheared me off and escaped had he not hooked himself dead center of the bony plate between his eyes. Somehow, this struck me as something I should not be surprised to see a pike do. They tend to be long on savagery and short on smarts, even by fish standards. In any event, hooked this way with the leader well away from that buzz saw of a mouth, I was able to land him.

When I travel home to Pennsylvania to visit my Mom and siblings, my brother-in-law often arranges for me to have access to a small farm pond owned by friends. I’ll escape up there for an hour or so when my schedule permits. I walk around the high banks of the pond throwing a brightly colored Clouser minnow out into the middle and stripping it back at a rapid rate. About every third cast or so, a small but chunky largemouth bass in the 10-12 inch range grabs the fly. It’s a lot of fun and allows me to get my fishing fix in while I’m supposed to be acting like a responsible adult and doing family stuff.

On one of these outings at the pond, after bringing about 20 of these pint-sized bass to hand, I sat down on the bank, clipped the Clouser from the leader and changed to a size #4 Big Black Ugly. I wanted to try crawling it across the bottom in hopes I might happen into a larger bass. I put a couple of split shot a few inches in front of the fly to help it get down and proceeded to fling it as far out into the center of the pond as I could cast. Kersploosh, went the fly and I waited for it to sink and then began to slowly bring it back towards me a couple inches at a time. Nothing, so I tried again and again and again. After about another half hour of this, I was ready to pack it in, but I figured I’d give it one more try. This time, instead of casting out into the middle of the pond, I threw the fly parallel to the shoreline about 10 feet off the bank. I let it sink and began my retrieve, not anticipating anything was going to change, but determined to give it this last try. I had moved the fly no more than a foot or so when it stopped dead. I lifted the rod tip. Hung up, I thought. That’s OK. I can tie a dozen of these things an hour. Then the snag began to move. For the next 10 minutes, I followed the fish around the boundary of the pond, gaining a little line here and then losing it again as the fish made a series of short but powerful runs. I figured I had the bass of a lifetime and was anxious to see him. But when he finally gave up the fight and rolled up to the surface, I saw this was no bass. Rather, it was a channel cat that (once landed and measured against my rod before being released) taped out at 26” or, I’d estimate, about seven pounds. What he was doing in that farm pond, I haven’t the slightest idea. Never mid that, though. Big Black Ugly comes through again.

I’ve also put Big Black Ugly to good use on the browns of the Spring Creeks of Southwest Wisconsin, where it has produced a number of fish in the 16-18” class when dead drifted in under an overhanging bank or man-made lunker structure. I’ve fished it off the edges of the weed beds in the lagoons of Presque Isle Bay and taken some nice largemouth up to three pounds or so. Largemouth seem to take it on the drop and before the retrieve even begins, much as they would a plastic worm. I even caught a couple of small muskies (around 22” or so) out of the inlet of Lake LeBoeuf on the Big Black Ugly.

Like I say, if it swims in fresh water and will take a fly, it’ll eat the Big Black Ugly.

It’s a simple fly to tie, even for a dexterity-challenged tier like me. Here’s the pattern.
Give it a try.

Hook: 3XL nymph/streamer hook in sizes #2-10. The best sizes for smallmouth are #4 and #6. I use #2’s and #4’s for Pike and #8’s and 10’s for trout.

Thread: black 6/0 or 3/0, depending upon fly size.

Body: Black chenille sized to match hook size. I put 10 or so wraps of .020 wire under the body on my bass Uglies and about that many wraps of .015 under the body of the smaller versions I use for trout.

Overbody/tail: Black dyed rabbit Zonker strip.

Mount the hook in the vise and wrap lead-free wire directly on shank. Then start thread at hook bend and wrap forward to point where body will end and then back to bend to anchor the wire in place. Cut a piece of black Zonker strip about 2 ½ times the length of the shank and tie this in just in front of the hook bend at the midpoint of the strip with half of the strip forming the tail and the other half ready to be tied down to form the overbody. Tie in chenille at hook bend and wrap it forward over the wire to a point about ¼ inch behind the eye. Make a few wraps to hold the chenille in place and add a drop of cement. Then pull the remaining strip over top of the body, making sure to center it on top of the chenille. Tie off and clip excess. At this point, you should have a little puff of rabbit fur sticking up in the air ahead of the body. You can get fancy and divide this with the thread to make a collar or gills along both sides of the fly. Or not. In any event, finish the head of the fly, cement and go fish.

The Big Black Ugly is my kind of fly. It’s a quick, easy tie and it catches fish regardless of how you work it; dead drift, slow retrieve with pauses or a rapid stripping retrieve.

I’m never without at least 50 of them in various sizes….