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2. Fly Fishing Beginners
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3. Bead head or not???

I'm fly fishing for hatchery trout in Missouri next month. I've used spinning equipment in the past but am going to break out the fly gear this time. If I am using maribou jigs or wooly buggers, what size is recommended and should they have a bead head OR should I just bring some of the mold-on "paste" or split shot if I need extra weight? I've got some indicators if needed and a small variety of other flies. Sorry for the "easy" questions but they sure don't seem "easy" to me. Thanks Folks

I'm open to other fly suggestions as well...

Weighting your Woolly Buggers can be done many ways - underwrapping with lead/non-toxic wire, bead-heads, bead-chain eyes, or lead dumbbell eyes (plated nickel or gold or etc.). I personally prefer the last two because they look like eyes! I also prefer sizes 6 to 10, and colors of your choice but have some black, brown, olive, and some others. Here's one of my favorites:

POG Bugger - Peacock herl body, Olive grizzly marabou tail, natural Grizzly hackle (tied in at the head, wrapped backwards to the tail, counter-wrapped with medium green wire) - with or without black bead-chain eyes. Replace the peacock herl with brown chenille, the olive grizzly marabou with brown grizzly marabou, and the medium green wire with medium copper wire, and you have another deadly trout bugger, again with or without black bead-chain eyes.

Hope this helps! Best of luck. Oh, didn't I mention a hot pink Bugger to you in another post? I did once have a great big brown snap at a #6 in hot pink at one of those MO trout parks, so make sure you got that color too!


Jonathon

My experience with bead heads over highly pressured fish is that they have a fairly short shelf life of effectiveness that varies in length based on how many other anglers are fishing them too. Often times, trout start shying away from them after being stung once. So, while they are a convenient and useful way to get a fly down and you should have some with you, I'd also be ready to show them buggers weighted with coneheads (especially black) or simply with some shot or putty a ways up the leader and no bead.

I think Jonathon's advice about bright colors is good, particularly in the sense that often the best way to take these stocked fish that are seeing a lot of different baits/lures/flies is to find something that nobody else is using and try that. This will often work for a while until they wise up about that as well. Then you switch to something else and start it all over again, etc.

Thanks gentlemen! I will take a variety of different things and see what works best. I appreciate the help!

Knock 'em dead, & take pics to post on here if you get some nice ones. Tight lines! And say HI to MO for me.

Jonathon