1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Fly Fishing
›
3. What's your favorite colored woolly bugger?, Page 2

Hi Kerry,

I too live in York, PA. During the past two weeks I fished Clarks Creek twice and on both trips the fly that caught the most fish was a #10 Black WB with some pearl Krystal Flash tied in parallel to the black tail. It also had a 3/16" red BH. Black Wooly Buggers are also a very good smallmouth bass pattern and I've caught hundreds of bass on them between Marietta and Wrightsville. For bass I use a #4 - #6 and I believe they imitate a helgrammite nymph very well.

I don't fish them often. Like many who have weighed in here, I tend to fish wooly buggers in early season, or later in season during periods of high water. I tie an olive bodied bugger with a weighted hook shank, palmered with a olive dyed grizzly hackle. For the tail of this fly I tie in a strip of olive dyed rabbit. The tail should be almost as long as the shank.

Geez, I can't believe this thread started back up again! I had to go back and check the posts to remember that I was the one who started this whole thing...

I just tied up seven fresh chartreuse Woolly Buggers last night, and within an hour or so I will be throwing them at bass, bluegill, black crappie, and yellow perch on a lake about three miles from where I am sitting right now. I've already taken over 20 fish this year from this lake on said Woolly Buggers - four bass (biggest one about 13"), two bluegill, and the rest crappie. BEST warmwater fly I have ever used, except for perhaps my own Killer Bass Fly...

With regards to trout fishing, I hooked (and lost) one of the biggest brookies of my life in the Black River (northern lower MI) on an olive WB with grizzly hackle, size 10. Also, some years ago on the Rifle River, I was wading downstream after an evening up throwing dries upstream. I put on a black WB #10 and began tossing it in front of me. First I felt a good bump, then on he next cast a big dude hit it, made a big thrashing splash out in the darkness, and was gone. Yes, they DO work for trout!

Jonathon

Here is a great link to everything you ever wanted to know about the Woolly Bugger. It was invented by a PA native named Russell Blessing, who I believe passed away not that long ago, imagine the feeling to be credited with one of the most effective trout, steelhead, and warm water flies ever developed?? Probably millions have been tied around the world. Pretty cool.

http://www.midcurrent.com/articles/flies/soucie_woolly_buggers.aspx

Thanks Matt for the help. I will take your suggestions and tie a few up and give them a whirl.Perhaps we can cast some lines together sometime. My wife is working on her PhD in Nursing education so I have a bunch of free time. I just stay out of the way....Especially when school is out for the summer and my teaching responsibilities are over for another year. Thanks again for the WB tip!Stay well and be safe!!! Whitie

I'd have to say the combination of Olive and Black is hard to beat, preferably with a beadhead. That's the fly with which I take at least 50% of the trout and smallmouth I catch.

Mo....What size do you usually use for your buggers??? Whitie

My personal favorite WB is a grizzly and white pattern.
I use grizzly marabou for the tail white chenille for the body and grizzly for the palmer.
The unique thing for me is I like this in small sizes #10-14 and fished in clear water to visible fish. I fish it more like a large nymph than a traditional streamer approach. Trying to get the fly to die on the bottom within 6 inches of a big brown is lethal at times and the patience it take to ait out the trout is nerve wracking.

The other time buggers shine for me is on rising water. I love to slam larger #2-6 all black and grizzly bugger tight to the bank as water starts to come up and more importantly as the color starts to change over. This is absolutely lethal on the more pressured limestoners I fish.
Your milage may vary,
John

I generally use #10 Woollies when I'm after good numbers of rainbows. I drift these under a strike indicator right where a riffle dumps into a pool, just like a nymph.

For larger browns, I use a #6 or #4, and rip it through the deep pools. Same method for smallmouth.

When I'm fishing on wild trout water where the fish are small and spooky, I downsize to a #14 mini-woolly bugger, and again, I drift it like a nymph, although usually without an indicator.

>>In addition I have never, ever, ever caught anything on a Muddler Minnow..>>

That's OK. Nobody else ever has either. Not really, although they may insist otherwise...:)

I like all black buggers and buggers with a bright olive marabou tail, a dark olive body and black hackle. Before the PA Lake Erie steelhead fishery went highbrow/big time, an all white #6 or #8 bugger was unbeatable so long as the water was 40F or above.

I also fish a bugger with a fiery brown tail, an olive or brown body and brown hackle and do well on both trout and stream bass. I like to think they take it for a crayfish, but who knows what they really think it is.

Finally, an all tan bugger in #8 and 10 is a good fly on streams with a hex hatch. In a pinch and when stripped, it can be a passable hex nymph imitation. And when there are no hex nymphs, its a good wooly bugger imitation...:)

Pride:

I caught the largest Brown of my life this morning on a 10 black wooly in a foot of water. So that's my favorite color right now.
eric

How do you fish the woolly bugger? What is your preferred method?

Ooooh, Mudshack, there's some gooood waters in them Ozarks. Ever hit Crane Creek or Capps Creek? I did well there many years ago - my ex-wife was from KCMO so that's where I went looking for trout. Actually, I did pop some nice largemouth in the Blue River in KC as well...including a 16-incher on a little silver streamer once.

I weight my WBs (lead or non-toxic substitute wire in the body, or bead chain/dumbell eyes) and throw them down and across, let them drift and sink, then swing and strip them back to me. Fish will hit anywhere during this process, usually on the swing and the first few strips if they are going to hit at all. Strikes are NOT subtle!! Be prepared for a solid jolt. Check out the other thread here entitled "wooly buggers" as others have asked and many have responded with their favorite techniques.

BTW they work TERRIFIC on bass (all kinds) and panfish (again, all kinds) if you are inclined to fish warm waters. Good luck and tight lines!

Jonathon

P.S. Eric, nice job!

JMD

Jonathon,
I just moved to the KCMO area last June. All my summer and fall was consumed with my other passion, bowhunting. What an amazing place. Deer behind every tree!

I bought my first fly rod 2 days ago. I will teach myself how to flyfish like I did how to bowhunt. From all you "experts" in the forums. Growing up my family was rifle hunters, rabbit hunters, and bait fishermen. We threw flies behind a clear cone bobber and I actually caught my biggest trout to date around 1984 up Pine Creek (16" Palamino).

After living in Houston for the past 6 years, and the Philly area the 9 years prior to that, I love seeing the running (riffles) and clear water here in MO. I haven't gotten down to the Ozarks yet, but plan on getting down there to do some camping with the family this summer.

I am heading back to my family cabin on Lycoming Creek in NC Penn this weekend for Fishmas Eve, and then this summer I will be taking a trip to the Blue River in Breckenridge, CO this summer. All tips on techniques and links to good websites are welcome.

Thanks, to all you guys/gals up front.

Jesse

Jesse, I grew up with a father who is a walking encyclopedia of firearms knowledge. Though I do not hunt myself, I enjoy the topic greatly and I am glad you are finding so many deer in your part of the world. Missouri has some incredible natural beauty, even right in KC - like I said, I spent many days fishing the Blue River, with bait and spinners as well as fly tackle (much more so on the fly rod the last time I lived there, in 1995). With regards to trout, there is a book entitled "Fly Fishing for Trout in Missouri" which is hopefully still in print. In it, you will find my favorite spot, Crane Creek, which is strictly no-kill, artificial lures (including flies) only, as it has a self-sustaining population of California redband rainbow trout that was stocked in the 1880s and never again since. The MO Dept. of Conservation guards this jealously and as a consequence the fishing is incredible! I hooked and sadly lost the biggest rainbow of my life there in '95, a 20"+ male with hooked jaws and a bright pink stripe running down his sides. He snapped my line in mid-air, and his image is burned into my brain forever...

Also, Capps Creek, where I nailed a nice 12" brown right on a dry fly, right in front of some old codgers soaking bait from the bank - it kept coming up and thrashing around right in front of these guys! I had him for shore lunch, then caught a couple of smaller rainbows that I let go. You can also try the "Trout Parks", but expect to find enormous crowds and fish that have seen everything known to man thrown at them, to the point where my own #16 Sulphurs on a 6x tippet wasn't even good enough to elicit a strike. Besides that, there are many dozens of Ozark streams that hold trout, not even to mention smallmouth, rock bass, sunfish, etc., all of which respond very well to flies, including woolly buggers.

GO GET 'EM!!!!! And say hi to the Ozarks when you do for me. There's some reeeeeeally pretty country down there. Tight lines and dancing fish on the end of them to you, sir!!

Jonathon

Where is crane creek in relation to KCMO? How long of a drive?

I think it's in the 3-4 hour range, down in the SW corner if I remember correctly. It's not a day trip, if that's what you're wondering. Trust me, though, it's worth the drive! I do believe it hosts a Hexagenia hatch, as I saw some really big mayflies stuck in spider webs along the stream. It's just a gorgeous little spot.

Jonathon

Cant go wrong with an all black bugger. I fish them for bass, trout, and whatever else is there at the time. Usually fished in stained water year round. Ive recently concocted a size 6 bugger with black and purple combo. Black marabou and some purple ostrich palmered. Used black bead and black wire, some purple and pearl estaz with some grizzly hackle. Also add in some purple crystal flash at the tail. If i could post a pic i would but dont know how.

I have been using Hot Spot conehead Seal Buggers for the past few years. marabou tails with two contrasting colors of flashabou or Krystal flash, different colors of Whiting Bugger packs or Ewing Packs, J.Fair Seal Sub.Dubbing, various UTC wire colors for ribs, Datum Glo-Brite Floss for hot spots and various colored cones ...

< />

The above pattern took this 9lb., 4oz. triploid Rainbow, for my son Michael, on an Eastern Sierra high elevation lake last August. They do not reproduce:

< />

These are some of the colors I have been playing with:

< />

< />

...worked again last week, up there...

< />


PT/TB