wooly bugger

I know that this may be a stupid question but what is or is there a proper way to fish a wooly bugger?

Just trying to settle a little bet.

Tight lines to all
Jason

As with most any fly, depends on the conditions and species. Wooly buggers are like opinions, everyone has one, a favorite one at that, and while it make sense to that singular person, it might not to anyone else. I didn’t answer your question, but if you look behind the words the answer is there. JGW

I believe the correct answer is swung, dead drifted, yanked with fast strips along the bottom on a full sinking line, used as a point fly with a nymph dropper… Others can add on.

I don’t think there is a wrong way to fish wooly bugger. I’ve found it to be a very versitile fly that will catch a variety of fish species. I even caught a striper on one last weekend.

Rex

I think the beauty of Woolly Buggers is that they can be fished and retrieved in so many ways, upstream, downstream, crosscurrent, etc…

I find I have more success detecting strikes when I keep my rod tip low and my line tight. Some anglers
even use indicators. I always watch the line.

Kelly Gallap and Bob Linesman have an interesting way to fish all streamers: the jerk-strip retrieve.

Randy Kadish

Jason,

If your bet is that there ‘is’ one correct way to fish a wooly bugger, you’ve lost.

If your bet is that there are zero ‘wrong’ ways to fish a wooly bugger, you’ve won.

After wracking my significant intellect, and that of those around me (more significant than mine), I’ve yet to come up with a way to fish this fly that doesn’t actually work, much less can be considered ‘wrong’.

If there is a ‘one fly’ for every situation, this is it.

Good Luck!

Buddy

What Buddy said…

You might break it down a little …to …moving water…& stillwater…then it would be …“what Buddy said” :slight_smile:

Jerk Strip Retrieve? Can you explain?

Hopefully someone can put it into words but it’s best understood if you see it in his DVD…strikes me as being almost violent :slight_smile:

Now getting back to the Buddy thing…

I do think if you want to define exactly what you are trying to imitate with the bugger…and only god knows what it doesn’t imitate…then there may be right and wrongs…e.g. let’s say you were imitating only a leech in stillwater…but that’s only academic because if you did screw up a leech retrieve you’d be imitating something else… 8)

Constant false casting would be the wrong way to fish the Wooly Bugger. You need to put that puppy in the water and let it go to work. I’ve caught fish slow bouncing it off the bottom of a lake and short stripping it just under the surface. Depending on the size and color, it imitates everything from minnows, leeches and even dragon fly nymphs. Very versatile.

As a new fly fisherman with limited skills and being the wolly bugger is one of my favorite flies I would have to agree that it could not be fished wrong as long as it is in the water. I have caught more fish on the bugger than all oter flies combined.

I think it can even imitate a crawfish so I try and keep it down and slowly work them over rocks. Honestly though I’ve had more luck with the muddler minnow for smallies…I’m going to fish the wooly more this spring because I need to experiment more…it’s a proven pattern that will catch alot of different fish…
Janus

As others said, There is no wrong way to fish it.

I have fished them dry, all the way to bottom huggers and used all kinds of retrieves. they are just fun to fish and almost everyone has confidence in them, because they catch fish consistently.

BTW, If you tie a standard woolly bugger in brown, but add some dumbell eyes(think clouser) in the front then it will ride hook point up and be a fabulous crayfish imitation.

To the person asking about Jerk-Strip retrieve, Here is a link that should be helpful. http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/jsgalloup/

McManus, the jerk-strip retrieve as Kelly describes it, is a fast action, wear your arm out and catch big browns way of fishing big streamers. It has also been called the Montana Pump. What seems strange to many at first is the concept of using a floating (or at least a very bouyant) fly with a sinking line often in realatively shallow water. The fly that is most associated with Kelly and this style is the Zoo Cougar, a fly Kelly designed. Personally I like to use this technique from a drift boat, but it is also effective wade fishing.

Basically this is the method. Cast your big streamer into shallow water and immediately start the retireve by lowering the rod tip while pointing it at the fly. Then quickly sweep the rod tip a couple or three feet to the side. Then, with your line hand strip in the slack line as you quickly sweep the rod back to where the tip is pointed at the fly. Keep this up until the fly is retrieved or a big brown eats it. This is an especially effective way to fish when there is a bank that starts shallow, and then has a well defined drop off. The big fish are often just on the deep side of the drop off.

This technique is also great casting to structure and swinging big flies through deep water. Flies like the Zoo Cougar ( basically a big, modified Muddler) push a good bit of water and the fish sense the movement. Big trout will move a good distance to chase down a fly fished this way. Of course this is also a good way to spook the smaller fish, but when you fish this rig you are targeting bigger, more aggressive fish.

For what it is worth, as a bugger addict if there is a wrong way to fish one, I have not found it.

Here is a link to Kelly’s site. http://www.slideinn.com/

Here is the Zoo Cougar as the FOTW. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/7698fotw.html

Here is a Yellowstone brown that wacked a Zoo Cougar.

Flies become popular because they work in many situations. PTN’s work just about everywhere and in any way you use them. Same with wooly buggers. A Fly that only works on one hatch or one waterway would not be used by just about every fly fisherman at one point or another. Of course, a bugger will only work in certain colors and/or sizes in places, but most techniques will bring fish to you. I work with a gentleman that only uses wooly buggers when trolling with a fly rod and lead core line. He does very well in the same places that I use other methods. My favorite method is to use clear intermediate lines with long slow retrieves in trout lakes( Leeches, Dragonflies, bait fish, you name it). Good fly, good thread, good time to stop typing.

The proper way to fish a wooley bugger is this:

The way it takes for a fish to hit it. …End of argument.

For trout:
-cast and stripped in
-cast and swung in the current
-left hanging directly downstream from the fisher(person) and let the trout come to it.

For bass:
-Cast and let drop
-Cast and stripped in
-Cast and stripped and paused
-cast and stripped and let drop

For bluegill:
-cast and let drop
-cast, let drop then slooooooooooooooowly stripped in

“If you cast out a Wooley Bugger and retreive it back to you, without loosing it in a large fish or, on an obstruction… you’ve just fished this particular fly 100% correctly”.
"Words of wisdom, given to me many, many, years ago!!

The only technique I could think of where this fly would fail would be fishing it with a fly rod on the ice. Too hard to hit that little hole with a cast and the thing won’t sink far enough for the fish to hit it. Beyond that, anything goes…