Best technique to use for Wooly Buggers?

jimboy

jimboy

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Jun 21, 2012
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Please help me with proper technique, color and setup to use either wooly buggers or beaded wooly buggers. I have been fishing the Pohopoco lately. Thanks in advance.
 
Boy that question probably has a bunch of answers. My thoughts are that it depends on water conditions. Under clear conditions I would rather fish mine like a nymph and fish it upstream and drift it back but under off color conditions I prefer to cast it 90 degrees and then swing it and let them attack it from below. Not sure how many, if any, will agree with me but there's my input.
 
Agree with Fox in terms of basic mechanics. They just plain catch fish though. I've caught fish in every conceivable fashion with them...drifting, swinging, stripping, upstream, downstream, 90 deg...just having the fly dangling in the water while I was doing something else.

The standard technique with them is to cast them across the stream from you, let them drift downstream and allow the line to tighten as this happens. Once it does the fly will "swing" across the current and end up nearly directly downstream of you. Once it does, strip it back towards you, with pauses in between the strips. Strikes can happen at any point in this process, but most often on the beginning of the swing IMO. WB's make a good beginner fly because you get to practice 3 different techniques all in one cast (drift/swing/strip), and again, they're just plain catch fish.

For Trout, in clearer water I like olive, in stained water black. For Bass, white and chartruse. I like mine with a beadhead or some lead wraps, or both...you usually want to get them down a bit. The swing and strip will cause the fly to rise in the water column, which sometimes triggers strikes I think.
 
I think the right amount of weight and water depth is the ticket. I remember one day fishing a deep slow moving pool. I use a strike indicator and after countless tries letting it drift through, I moved the indicator way up, like twice the depth of the pool, and added two BB sized split shots about 8 inches from the fly. Big rainbow on the first cast after that! In high murky water I like them big, flashy, and with rubber legs. Bass love big wooly buggers with rubber legs too.
 
Over the weekend after all that rain was using a white conehead bugger with rubber legs. Standing at a corner with fast rapids on my right and on my left a section of water very still with the rapids rushing by. Cast the bugger with no indicator let it drift down and when line got tight the water moved it into the calm water and stripped it back to me. First strip back landed a 14" largemouth bass. There is no wrong way to use a bugger.
 
" just having the fly dangling in the water while I was doing something else. "

That's the one that ALWAYS works for me. Cast, forget it while lighting a cigarette or watching a bird or untangling something and land a fish. It almost makes me think I am trying too hard otherwise.
 
Cast, retrieve, repeat. No right or wrong way.
 
Don't use a Bugger on the Po, there is some advice for you.
 
@ Sbecker - Wolly Buggers on the Pohopoco are not good? Can you advise your choices for fall fishing. Thanks in advance.
 
Small WB's (Size 10-12) on the Po work very well.
I would also suggest pink San Juan Worms and don't be afraid to go big on them.
 
I am pretty sure I know the section you are fishing and I personally would not use them there because of the type of water and structure. Just my opinion. Green weenie if you want to catch all the stockies brookies. Alsomidges, zebra probably being number 1. Pink SJ as well.
 
@SBecker - I have been fishing a private area along the marina. Any advice would be greatly appeciated.
 
I am still learning the stream and have not had much luck. Green Weenie with weight? I have been fooling around with small midge pupa like the Zebra and a fly called an M & M sizes like 18 and 20. Bead head takes away the need for weight which is easier. Again thanks for the advice and direction.
 
KeithS wrote:
" just having the fly dangling in the water while I was doing something else. "

That's the one that ALWAYS works for me. Cast, forget it while lighting a cigarette or watching a bird or untangling something and land a fish. It almost makes me think I am trying too hard otherwise.

This always has a humbling effect on me. At times, I think I've developed some amount of skill as a fisherperson. Then, a fish goes and hooks itself :) Brookies are notorious for this, IMHO, because I think they are starving half the time.

To the OP question, as others have stated, there's really no wrong way to fish a bugger. It mimics many different things in the water, and fishing it multiple ways helps it mimic even more things..
 
jimboy wrote:
@SBecker - I have been fishing a private area along the marina. Any advice would be greatly appeciated.

If you are fishing the horse farm, I can not help you, because it is the only section I have never fished. Well that and the campground by the turnpike. I don't know the structure or how the fish hold. I would just fish princes and PTs. They are my highest producing fly.
 
Buggers work every where. Something about them just makes fish chase them. In my experience, you get a few extra tries when fishing with them over the same fish. For some reason, I feel that when the fish is even aware of your presence, they still have to chase your bugger. My most productive method is casting up and across and as it heads down stream keep mending an stripping back. Also, the across and swing down stream method works awesome too. Rather than stripping it back at the end of the swing, let it hang stationary in current and give it a twitch of the rod occasionally. Sometimes I'll let it hang like this, giving a few twitches every now and then for up to a couple minutes and the fish hit it hard. People will tell you that size 6-10 is appropriate for most pa streams, but my favorite is a size 4 black or olive cone head bugger. It will look big when you tie it on but the small fish still hit it and so do the monsters that ingnore everything else.
 
Got my first fish on a WB today! I'm used to fishing dry flies so I found casting the WB VERY difficult at first. I tried fishing it straight across let it drift down stream and stripped it back. The fish I landed was on the strip. I had another fish on for a while after letting it sit in the current and twitching as described above, but lost it. I'm definitely going to start using them more.
 
This is sort of related, not so much to actual wooly bugger technique, but helpful for learning how to cast them. As I said in my previous post I usually fish dry flies, so I had no idea how to cast a fly with any weight. Looking back I'm surprised I didn't hook the back of my neck.

I realize that this is slightly off topic, but I'm new to WBs too and I thought it might be useful to someone else that's just starting to try them.

Casting Heavy Flies
 
I will usually fish buggers during the cold weather months, unless there are bugs hatching. There are many ways to answer your question, but I'll try. First I take a different approach to limestone streams then I on freestone streams. However that doesn't always hold true.
So on a limestone stream, if the water is cold, under 40 I'll dead drift the fly and just twitch it occasionally. If the temp is over forty I use the active, strip the bugger approach.
On freestone streams I almost always strip the fly back to me after an upstream cast. When the fish are slow reacting then I'll change up what I'm doing.
During warm weather months I still use different approaches, but I use dry flies and nymphs, unless it's raining. Then I'll use buggers. I know what flies hatch when and I match the hatch. Hope this helps.
 
I fished the Pohopoco and landed 4 nice 12"-14" brookies all on smaller black, olive and white Wooly Buggers, dead drift with a twitch at end of swing. Thanks for all the info.
 
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