Ugly Bug

The Ugly Bug belongs to the family of rubber-legged "rubberlegs" nymphs that trace back to the Girdle Bug - invented in the 1930s by Frank McGinnis of Anaconda, Montana, who used strands of rubber from women's girdles for the legs. In the 1980s an all-black, fully rubber-legged variant was marketed under the name "Ugly Bug"; no single inventor of this particular variant is recorded.

Like its predecessors, the Ugly Bug primarily imitates a large stonefly or beetle nymph, but the constantly kicking rubber legs also make it a pure attractor for trout, bass and other predatory fish. It is fished weighted, deep on the bottom, dead-drift or with light twitches - ideal in heavy, coloured water where movement matters more than exact imitation. It is tied barbless.

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