How to Tie Uke’s Brown Bug

Producer: tightlinevideo

Every summer I host trips with the wonderful folks at Linehan Outfitting Company in northwestern Montana. The spectacular Kootenai River never disappoints and I always seem to come home with a new fly pattern or two. In the summer of 2022, Tim Linehan had me fish a fly developed by one of their long-time guests, Tom Ukena from Massachusetts. They called the fly, simply enough, “Uke’s Brown Bug” and it worked phenomenally well. Since that time, I’ve been lucky enough to fish the pattern from Iceland to southern Patagonia and many places in between, and it’s never once let me down.

Tom is a very humble guy and insists that it’s nothing more than a Perdigon, but there’s something about the color combination that he came up with that just works. I’ve had to make some modifications to his original pattern because I can no longer use UV cure resin, but I believe I’ve stuck pretty close to the original theme. So, here it is, Uke’s Brown Bug. Nothing earth shattering, right? But for me anyway, this pattern is simply magical.

The fly starts with a jig hook, here a Lightning Strike JF2 in size 14. If I could tie this fly in only one size, it would probably be a 14. I match this hook with a 7/64” gold slotted tungsten bead. Tungsten beads aren’t cheap and I hate losing them to the floor, so I use a bodkin to stab the bead, which then allows me to center the small hole in my fingertips. Holding the hook with plunger-style hackle pliers lets me easily insert the point of the hook into the small hole of the bead, thus trapping it on the hook shank. I’ll then get the assembly firmly secured in the jaws of my tying vise. I’ve said this many times before but it’s very important to have the squared off end of these slotted beads pointing down, with the curved end on top of the hook shank, to allow the bead to reset properly behind the hook eye.

For thread, I’ve loaded a bobbin with a spool of UTC 140 in a rusty brown color. I’m not sure this is the color that Tom originally used, but it’s the one I’ve come to prefer. Get the thread started on the hook shank immediately behind the bead and, after taking a half dozen or so wraps rearward, snip off the excess tag. Then, advance your thread forward, back up the shank, to behind the bead.

.02 lead-free round wire is used to add additional weight and to help stabilize the bead on the hook. With the spool in hand, insert the end of the wire into the slot on the bead on top of the hook shank. Take 5 or 6 nice tight thread wraps right behind the bead to anchor the wire. Then, bring the wire around in front of your tying thread and begin making touching wraps rearward with it.

After 5 or 6 turns, hold the wire perpendicular to the hook shank, anchor it with a couple of thread wraps, then bring it parallel to and on top of the hook shank. As you take thread wraps rearward, rock the wire up and down so it eventually breaks off, leaving a nice little ramp down to the hook shank. Take thread wraps over top of the wire wraps to begin covering them up and locking them down further. End with your thread at the back end of the wire wraps.

Medium pardo Coq de Leon fibers are used for the tail of the fly. On this size 14, six or so looks about right. Do your best to keep the tips aligned while stripping them free from the stem. Measure to form a short tail, just a little more than a hook gap in length. Secure the fibers to the top of the hook shank by pulling them slightly up and toward you as you take rearward thread wraps. Go all the way to the start of the bend, but not down into it. You can then lift the butt ends up and snip them off close. Take thread wraps forward, once again, to the back edge of the wire wraps.

Small sized red Ultra wire is used to rib and segment the fly and, to me, is the key ingredient in this pattern. A 10” length will make numerous flies. Place one end against the near side of the hook, at the location of your tying thread, and begin taking rearward thread wraps to secure it. Allow the wraps to push the wire over to the far side of the hook, so the wire won’t jostle the tail when you go to wrap it. Continue taking thread wraps to cover up the wire wraps and create a nicely tapered carrot-shaped body on the fly.

When the shape is getting close, give your bobbin a counterclockwise spin, as if you’re looking down on it, to uncord and flatten the thread. This will allow you to even out the peaks and valleys, and smooth the body of the fly. With that done, get hold of the wire and begin making open spiral wraps with it, up the body of the fly. Five turns showing is the magic number for me. Make sure to anchor the wire really well at the back edge of the bead, then helicopter the wire to break it off close and clean.

Rather than changing threads, I use a permanent marker to color a short length of the brown thread black. I’ll then go directly to my whip finish tool and use it to do a 5 or 6 turn, back to front, whip finish, seat the knot really well then cut my tying thread free. This produces a short black collar on the fly. On Tom’s original pattern, he uses black UV cure resin to create a dark little wing case, as opposed to a black thread collar. He then coats the entire body of the fly with clear UV resin to produce the Perdigon-effect.

My method for coating the body doesn’t look nearly as good, but seems to be functional enough. Always a protective tray so as not to mess up my beautiful Tie-Craft bench. A foam donut to stabilize the skinny, tippy bottle of clear Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear nail polish – about the toughest nail polish I’ve found. It’s a good idea to really wipe the brush off to avoid drips. Coat the entire thread body of the fly with the nail polish, most all of this will sink in as it dries. There’s no need to put it on a rotating dryer as sagging usually isn’t a problem. A second or even third coat will get you closer to that streamlined Perdigon look.

Another remarkable thing about this pattern is that it seems to work well over a tremendous number of sizes and weights. I’m never without at least a few big and heavy models, like size 8 hooks with 3/16” beads. Here, I’ll bump up the thread weight and the wire sizes appropriately. Going down a hook size, these materials drop down in size as well. There is some overlap in terms of material sizes as you produce smaller and smaller flies. It’s kind of incredible to me that this single pattern catches fish in all the various sizes shown here.

This includes a super small one in size 18. Of course, you can use the flies solo, as I often do with the size 14 we just tied. Or you can go tandem, something like the size 12 along with the 18. A big floaty foam Water Walker is enough to hold up a size 10 in a hopper-dropper combo. On the Kootenai, a big heavy stonefly nymph with a Uke’s Brown Bug trailing off the hook bend, suspended beneath a big indicator, is beyond deadly. As is a diminutive size 18 hung beneath a well-hackled size 12 or 14 Purple Haze. 14’s and 16’s, of course, work real nicely in Euro-Nymphing set-ups that employ sighters and very light tippets.

Speaking of tippets, it’s really important with this fly as well as most other nymphs, to use the correct tippet size for the size of the fly. As far as I’m concerned, this is way more about less drag and allowing the fly to move freely, than it is about the visibility of the tippet.

Finally, thanks again to Tom for dreaming up and sharing this pattern. Tom is an amazing tier and I really can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.