My Secret Weapon

[HBGMarine]

Greetings and salutations! With stockie season fast approaching I've been tying up flies for the first few weeks. The below picture is of my secret weapon, the rainbow bugger. Last year this fly was my "go-to" wherever I was fishing. I made it up after fishing for stocked bows in Perry County. Does anyone else have a secret weapon?

 

[njk3395]

looks good!.. For me, with stocked fish i like to use a few different flies.. White Buggers, Glo Bugs, San Juans in various colors, and CJ's in bright colors are my usual go to flies.

 

[osprey]

Early spring it would have to be my small version of wooly buggers , tied on size 10 and smaller hooks with peacock herl wound for the body instead of chenille , try downsizing to as small as 18 and fish them the same as you would the big ones , another early season goody is a white marabou muddler with a red tag/tail and some red at the throat.

 

[shipnfish2006]

A gold estaz bugger. It doesn't look too much different than your fly there HBGMarine. In fact, if I remember your reports from last year correctly, we probably use our secret weapons on the same stream. It's definitely my go-to for stockies.

 

[Bruno]

A gold estaz bugger with a red underbody. I space the wraps of estaz enough that a red thread underbody shows.

 

[HBGMarine]

osprey wrote:
Early spring it would have to be my small version of woolly buggers , tied on size 10 and smaller hooks with peacock herl wound for the body instead of chenille , try downsizing to as small as 18 and fish them the same as you would the big ones , another early season goody is a white marabou muddler with a red tag/tail and some red at the throat.

I tied up a few black wolly buggers with peacock herl bodies the other day. Great minds think alike! I also add 4-6 strands of black crystal flash to the maribou tail to give it a little more eye grab. For me sz 8-14 woolly buggers are what I consistently catch fish on.

shpnfish2006 wrote:
A gold estaz bugger. It doesn't look too much different than your fly there HBGMarine. In fact, if I remember your reports from last year correctly, we probably use our secret weapons on the same stream. It's definitely my go-to for stockies.

Which stream would that be? If it was in Perry I'm headed there to clear some brush/branches this weekend. I have my first few weeks of fishing pretty planned out so I figured I would try to prevent as many hangups as possible.

 

[shipnfish2006]

Which stream would that be? If it was in Perry I'm headed there to clear some brush/branches this weekend. I have my first few weeks of fishing pretty planned out so I figured I would try to prevent as many hangups as possible.

If I'm remembering right I believe you posted a few reports about Fishing Creek, right?

 

[osprey]

Fishing creek in Perry county man that brings back some great memories...........with the Newport gang at their club , Jess Troutman? Marty Bohn? D. Campbell? tell 'em i miss 'em.

 

[wgmiller]

I was 'destroying' the stocked rainbows the other day on a hot pink bugger, size 10. I also had good luck with a purple bugger, same size. Tie it with pearl or crystal chenille and its deadly! In fact, I've got to make a run to BPS to pick up some more material...

 

[HBGMarine]

shipnfish2006 wrote:

If I'm remembering right I believe you posted a few reports about Fishing Creek, right?

That would be correct. These rainbow buggers are deadly there. I lost a bunch of them one day trying to fish under a big fallen tree and brush pile in the water. Every time I would have a trout on it would break me off in the brush. I've found a few sections of this stream that don't get much pressure and hold fish well. Drop me a line if you're in the area early season and want to fish it.

osprey wrote:
Fishing creek in Perry county man that brings back some great memories...........with the Newport gang at their club , Jess Troutman? Marty Bohn? D. Campbell? tell 'em i miss 'em.

Gotta love Perry County! I would probably say my favorite fishing is in Perry. Last summer I did a fair amount of exploring and now I'm hooked on brookie fishing the small mountain streams up there.

 

[shipnfish2006]

That would be correct. These rainbow buggers are deadly there. I lost a bunch of them one day trying to fish under a big fallen tree and brush pile in the water. Every time I would have a trout on it would break me off in the brush. I've found a few sections of this stream that don't get much pressure and hold fish well. Drop me a line if you're in the area early season and want to fish it.

I get up there quite a bit after Marysville stocks it. I pretty much cut my trout fishing teeth on that stream. The club does a great job of spreading the fish out. There are a lot of places where you can go for a while without seeing another angler. I think that's what keeps me going up there. I'll drop you line this spring.