Wooly Bugger Question

Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Thanks,
B.

On Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:28:36 -0400, "Robert11"
wrote:

Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Thanks,
B.


Hi, Bob. Two ways:

You can think of the bugger as a streamer and fish it as such,
weighted or unweighted. If it is unweighted, I would use a sink tip
(or full sink) line to get it down. If it is a conehead or beadhead
bugger, fish it with a floating line. It should get down deep enough,
depending of course, on the depth of the water. If you need to get
deeper, use the sink tip or full sink method. You could also use a
weighted leader ( 7 - 9 foot) available at most fly shops, with a loop
to loop connection on either end. I used these successfully in Tierra
del Fuego to get nymphs down deep. Loop the weighted leader to your
fly line and loop your leader (or just plain tippet material) to the
weighted leader. The set up in TdF was a 7 foot sinking leader, with
5 to 7 foot of 26# mono. Three or four X tippet should be good enough
for anything you'd catch in Taxachusetts.

An unweighted small bugger can be fished as a nymph. A split shot
(non-toxic) placed about 18 inches above the fly will help to get it
down. Cast up-stream and keep as much line off of the water as you
can. Use it with or without a strike indicator.

Robert11 wrote:

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Often as a standard streamer, but also often dead-drifted like a nymph
then swung directly downstream once tension on the drift can't be avoided,
then hung and twitched a bit directly downstream, then stripped back a bit.

In Oregon, there are a number of streams that don't allow added weight on
the leader, so folks fish standard nymphs above or below very heavily
weighted flies ("tool flies") that serve to get the rig down. Woolly
buggers make great tool flies.

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Both. Depends on conditions. (see above).

JR

"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Thanks,
B.
gosh, not only the first fly with some succss....but my all time favorite.

Easy to tie, the messier the better - I always use a bit of flash...small
and white in spring, greens and blues...and yellow....the small cone heads I
tumble...the mediums I streamer, the large cone heads I bump along the
bottom like a crayfish...in the proper color of course....


My main waters are small mouth and I fish them almost exclusively....heck
unweighted and shaken dry you can fish white on top water as a dying
minnow....
....Tie 'em sparse...make 'em glitter' tie them like a crayfish or a
minnow...they are easy and perhaps the most versatile fly I have ever
fished.....

.....let me see, trout ( browns rainbows), carp , catfish...grass carp, steal
head, bass, crappie, rock bass....I'd be willing to wager right here and now
that I have caught more species on a wooly than any other fly here....



....but then, I am only here for the beer....

john

On Mar 12, 3:28*pm, "Robert11" wrote:
Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? *Why ?

Thanks,
B.

I look at the bugger as an impressionistic subsurface search pattern.
Bigger and weighted are a goodanuff crayfish, bullhead, and monster
stonefly pattern. Medium are a goodnuff stone, big caddis nymph,
minnow pattern. I don't use small ones so who knowes what they rep. I
think its best to have a few each in black/brown, red/orange, and dull
green.

Dave

"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Thanks,
B.


I use them most often in stillwaters ... lightly weighted but not much and
with various sinking lines to fish the depth I desire ... I think of them as
dragon flies and damsel flies and baitfish and big yummy goodies depending
on size and color and my mood

I also fish a 'specific' damsel pattern, totally unweighted, that could pass
for a wooly bugger if you didn't 'know better'G


Larry L ( who when fishing a bugger and asked "what ya using' usually
answers " a pattern tied to suggest the important pre-emergent stage of
wooly buggers' )

In article , Robert11
writes
Hello,

How do you folks fish wooly buggers ?

Do you prefer the unweighted or the weighted kind ? Why ?

Thanks,
B.



The Woolly Bugger is so much like a variant I fish with. I like to tie
it using Olive marabou tail, olive chenille body, olive hen hackle and a
gold head. This you may consider is a rough imitation of a damsel nymph.
However fished slow and deep it frequently gets results.

I may under-wind the body with fine lead wire for weight
--
Bill Grey