Woolly Buggers 2009

Fishing a lake for brook trout on woolly buggers taught me a lot yesterday. Probably things like...

1. lead them up more (save a few light for slow but the sink rate was very slow even on some I thought were heavy.

2. there is no bad color (although there are certainly some better colors ....)

3. don't rush (I think I was fishing them too fast before)

4. take a moment and watch the action (I am sure most of you know to do this, but I had never before, and it taught me a lot)

Still learning, hating the learning, curve but loving the class both on line and in the "lab"!

Steve

PS - I wanted to post something on the streamers section anyway.

i just took a class on lake fishing ,vary your retrieve was the thing of the day

I like fishing unweighted flies in lakes and ponds with intermediate or fast sinking lines depending on the depth of the water. I use the countdown method to find the fish and vary the retrieve. A quick movement of the fly followed by no movement at all sometimes provokes a strike

Varying your retrive is good and all but the real key is remembering what you were doing when the fish took your fly!

"remembering what you were doing when the fish took your fly! "

Wow, I try so hard to remember and even document WHY and HOW I just took a fish not just with what etc... I started to take pictures of nearly all of the landed trout so I can remember WHAT I took them on, but what exactly what was I doing, in what type of water, hatches, species, and the list could go on. That is when I start to really grow as a angler.

I've never fished buggers before but I am probably going to try them out in the Delaware now that the season is closed in the streams for a couple weeks. From what I have read, I should fish them across and slightly downriver and strip it in, staying tight to the fly so I can feel the strike. When there is faster water between me and the fly let the current create a downstream belly in the line and strip it back. The fly will be upstream from the belly of line and will be pulled downstream as I strip, which would be more natural of a wounded minnow. Am I on the right page here?

There is no wrong way to fish the woolly bugger. Just give it a little life and you should catch fish.
Sometimes dead drifting buggers produce's results.

This is my new favorite pattern.

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...e/IMG_1490.jpg

I am really beginning to like the buggers. Today it was windy, muddy, and opening day in SE PA and a good part of the morning I was trying everything to no success. But then I tried a varigated red and yellow bugger with a black tail and I hooked up with 5 'bows within an hour. Maybe instead of my "last chance" bug, maybe I will begin include buggers as one of my "go to" flies.

Has anyone been susessfull using buggers euro-nymphing as the anchor fly ? I have tried many times with no luck. Maybe I am doing something wrongf.