Oh my goodness. I haven’t fished a Zug Bug in years. I don’t have any. How did that happen? The Prince Nymph perhaps? Regardless, it is an awesome fly and I intend to tie some in say size 8 to size 14. I love the iridescence of the peacock sword tail and that easier to tie in mallard wingcase (only tied in at front of thorax). It can be tied, like every other subsurface fly, with a bead. But, I would tie it the original way, sans the bead, with wire wraps for weight. Silver tinsel is another less used tying material these days. I came upon the pattern while researching under body/over body tying techniques. There was the Zug Bug. A fly that 25+ years ago took many fish for me on the Metolius, Mckenzie, Deschutes, Crooked, Malheur, Minam….well, it did! How does a productive fly fade away like that? Here are a couple of examples….
SwittersB & Exploring 
It is a simpler fly to tie than say the Prince Nymph, which you may have had in a fly tying class:
Hook should be a nymph hook, 2 xl to 3 xl (two to three times longer shank than a standard length shank) in sizes 8 to 12.
Thread: dark color (black or dark brown)
The fly is weighted by wraps of non-lead wire wrapped at mid shank and overlayered with thread wraps.
The tail is the beautifully colored part of the peacock sword that comprises the ‘eye’. The ribbing is silver, narrow tinsel or wire. The body is regular peacock herl. Use 3-4 pieces of herl. Wrap the pieces of herl forward over the underbody of wire. When are within a hook eye’s width of that hook eye….stop and tie off the herl. Snip the excess. Counter wrap the ribbing over the herl and also tie it off.
Tie in a brown hen hackle at the point where you trimmed the herl and ribbing. Wrap one turn of hackle, tie off and trim. Now the wing case is a small portion of mallard, gadwall or teal…no larger than one third the shank’s length or the traditional thorax size. Finish the thread head and your are done. Don’t crowd the eye as my instructions can bunch up materials near the eye…judge this after a couple flies and you will not be too far back nor to close to the eye…..best wishes Miss P
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