Martyn White | Thursday, 19 March 2026
We're a wee bit late today, but I've been out fishing. The Henshall bass bug; this week's fly is, unusually, one that isn't a quick and easy tie. But it's not necessarily that much more trouble than others of its family.
One of the oldest hair-bug patterns, it dates back to (probably) the late 1890s so is obviously devoid of prismatic eyes, flash and rubber legs. It's just hair and feather, which doesn't bother the bass at all. Despite the lack of rubber, it does have a moustache! A split clump of bucktail sticking out either side of the face of the bug that adds loads of extra movement and will quiver and vibrate at the slightest animation from the angler. Excellent for dead-stick presentations around cover on flat calm days: splat it done amongst the pads and once ALL the ripples are gone try to just move it enough to put a wee bend in the bucktail and wait. You'll move it more than that but that's how I think of it to stop me going faster. Another good thing about it is that because of the moustache, you have to leave the face un sealed and soft, so although it has a blunt face and you can pop it, it really works as more of a slider than a popper. Something I generally think is desirable, especially with hair-bugs.
Unfortunately though, it has a weird moustache of bucktail at the front which is a pain. You need to tie it before the body which makes it tricky to pack the hair as tightly as you otherwise could. Then you need to avoid trimming it off when shaping the bug followed by splitting the bunch of hair and forcing it back so it splays out nicely. This isn't terrible after you've done it a few times, but you need to remember to allow extra space compared to more modern hair bugs. You could speed things up by spinning the hair rather than stacking it, especially when tying the first few, but that ultimately means the bug will not float as well or be as durable as a tightly stacked bug.
Here's the pattern:
Your preferred bug hook. (I like the TMC8089, but it runs very big for it's sizing)
Thread: 150 den GSP, Uni to finish the moustache and weed guard.
Tail: bucktail flanked by cock or hen neck feathers
Body: stacked deer hair
Legs: bucktail tied like a "Moustache" (think like the Lorax or an 18th century Prussian)
Weedguard: Mason hard mono
It's fiddly, but probably worth it even if just for the practice.