Wooly Buggers

[NJTroutbum]

Black, rusty brown, olive & purple. I tie both buggers and mohair leeches in those 4 colors.

[Fishin Bill]

I have to agree with Cold- I'm stubborn and try them all, but here in the Keystone State, I'd always have some white wooly buggers with me at all times.

[spinner1]

click photo to enlarge

[anglerdave]

Black tail with a bit of flashabou, olive body, black hackle in size 8. If I were limited (God forbid) to only one fly this would be it.

[EdD]

My favorite is olive mohair yarn on a Mustad 9672 (I've still got a few hundred) with oversized yellow hackle. The tail is yellow marabou with a sliver of red. In the water, the red looks like a blood trail, at least to me.

For panfish I'll use a short loop of chartreuse, crystall chenille with the loop parallel to the surface of the water.


Ed

[McManus]

Ed, I don't understand the "loop" "short loop"? "loop parallel to the water"?

[Ray Kunz]

Don't forget the panfish's affinity for orange and by no means should you overlook Peter Frailey's little Hare and Herl Buggers.

[spinner1]

Thin Mint Bugger

Lite Brite Bugger

[Wm1]

#1 choice is olive
#2 choice is chartreuse

Chartreuse doesn't work as often or consistently as olive, but when it works it works well. (At least in the Elk river in TN).

William

ps...I don't have a clue as to why it works! It doesn't look like anything around here.

[EdD]

Ed, I don't understand the "loop" "short loop"? "loop parallel to the water"?

For a tail a take a piece of chartreuese, crystal chenille and tie it in. Then I bend it back around, tie it in again, and trim. This leaves a loop 1-2 times the size of the hook gape. The bend of the hook is typically verticle, i.e. perpendicular to the surface of the water. Therefore, when I have bent the chenille so that it is parallel to the surface of the water, it is more like a beaver's tail than the rudder of a ship. It is horizontal like a flounder, not vertical like a blugill. Basically I have created a squashed ring of chenille at the back of the fly. If you look at the fly from above, you see the ring. If you look at it from the side, you see a line of chenille.

I do this to help the woolly bugger to float. I gink the top and sides of the fly and let is break thru the surface film. I use this variant on place of a popping bug. By jerking it under and letting sit a short time, it is a wet. One can't do that with most popping bugs.


Ed