On Nov 16, 2:43 pm, Hntm wrote:
......about an extra-long bugger-like fly

The "Roadkill Streamers" piece I wrote many years ago
starts off with the following, about the "wall of fame" at
Dan Bailey's fly shop in Livingston, MT:

Of the 364 four pound (or larger) trout painted on the walls of Dan
Bailey's Fly Shop in Livingston Montana:

7% were taken on small wet flies.
12% were taken with small dry flies.
15% were taken with large dry flies such as grasshoppers,
Wulffs and adult Salmon Fly imitations.
24% were taken with Woolly Worms, Bitch Creeks, Girdle Bugs,
and Montana Nymphs.
42% were taken with streamer flies.

Of those 400 or so painted outlines of large fish (at Bailey's) almost
all were large browns. The number of 4 pound or larger rainbows was
small, for some reason. One interesting (also missing) detail was
that of the "24% were taken with Woolly Worms, Bitch Creeks, Girdle
Bugs"
a disproportion number of those were taken with "Duck Lake Specials"

The Duck Lake Special (now a forgotten fly) was an extra-long
Woolly Worm, tied on an 8x long shank, with or without a Bugger
like tail. Also, not all of the Duck Lake Special fish were caught
in Duck Lake (on the Blackeet Reservation).

http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/...Streamers.html

I use lots of extra-long flies. But I seldom tie them on long-shanked
hooks.
I'm convinced the longer the shank, the easier it is for the fish to
pop the hook.
It takes some ingenuity to tie a long fly with short shanked hook.
There are numberous ways (like the roakill, pig sticker and various
articulated flies, tied by guys like Dan Delekta and Kelly Gallup.