Anyone out there ever try bright colored woolly buggers?? I hit upon this combination on a trip last fall to a remote BC lake. Fished this lake for three days, starting with traditional flies and working my way thru buggers to chartreuse buggers and also very large black buggers.

The chartreuse color seemed to attract them the best as I caught approximately 40 fish one day on mostly that pattern.. and some with the big black woolly buggers. By "big" I mean #4 4xl hooks. In that 40 fish I also counted "short line releases" as "caught fish".

Another thing I noticed on that trip was some trout would just nip...nip..nip at the fly and not hit the hook. I tried something I heard about 15 years ago.. about throwing the fish some slack and they'd really smack that bugger.

The theory was that the fish were nipping at the leech to make it defensive and ball up. When it would ball up then the trout would swallow it.

It seemed to work as when the nippers hit and I threw about a foot of slack..when I'd take up the slack, a fish was on the hook.

Just curious about picking the brains of other fly fishermen....

Remember to pick brains not noses!
brains for buggers,noses for boggers

[ 05-16-2001: Message edited by: Trout Master ]

[ 05-17-2001: Message edited by: Trout Master ]

I use a lot of chartreuse in my woolly buggers and jigs. The chartreuse and light green colors seem to catch more fish in light as well as dark colored lakes.

Zen,

I don't fly fish, but do slow troll with wolly buggers alot for trout and have noticed that I get alot of "short strikes". When this happens I cut the motor ( battery operated) and drop my rod back a few feet creating slack and "fish on" - your explantion clears up the mystery for me, I always though it was just moving too fast.

In lakes with green colored water, I have had my best success with olive or black/olive wolly buggers and the cracked frog flatfish which is green and yellow. Maybe I need to get some chartreuse buggers.

I fished a lake up in BC for 4 days solid last fall and the fish wanted leeches.. leeches... and more leeches. Actually, nothing but leeches.

It took me about a day to figure that out as I used "the usual suspects" for fly choices. Then I worked thru the usual repitorie of leeches and buggers.

Wally Adams, who used to work for Kaufmans, told me about that fall back trick years ago. When he told me that I kept wondering "how does one tell the difference between a nip and a strike".

After fishing leeches and buggers for 3 days solid I figured out the difference. A strike was a solid weight on the end of the line, and the nips.. well you could feel them as a series of pecks. I remembered what Wally said and threw some slack after some nips and found out the fish had grabbed that fly when the line went slack.

I'm headed back to that lake in 3 weeks and have a box of almost nothing but leeches and buggers. I've been tying them since about the first of April.

That's also how I came up with the funny handle of "Zen Leecher". Same time Jim became the "Master".

hey Leecher,

What BC lake did you try?
I'm located in BC and I'll take you up on those chartreuse buggers.

Okay I'll bite. A quick description of this green marvel so I can tie up some to try this weekend would be appreciated.

thanks

Here is how I tie mine:

Hook: #8,#6 or whatever
Tail: Brown Hackle or wool
Body: Chartreuse chenial [sp?]
Wrap: Grizzly hackle palmered forward
Head: Peacock kerl or #6 brown thread

If I weigh it I full rap lead from about 1/4" from bend to 1/4" from eye for head room.

I hope that this helps. Maybe someone else has a different way of tying this fly.

Mine's kinda simple...and also hard to pin down for specific materials as I vary them.

Here's my list(s)
1) black marabou tail and black palmered hackle

2)either chartreuse chenille or angora goat (if I was in BC it might be seal fur)

3)all chartreuse

4)All chartrueuse with a cone head

5)A variation of the "olive willy" only lots larger and in all chartreuse and a red bead head.

6)Similar to the very first only with a black tail and palmered olive green grizzly hackle

Now if you ask me the name of number 5, I'll answer "Itsa Secret". That's the name.

#4 was named the YCH which stood for Yellow Cone Head.

Shoot... now you guys have all my secrets.

Well, I just tied up some well weighted chartruse flash chenille, black hackle and marabou, hot pink egg, sucking leeches. I can hear the fish calling for them as I type.

thanks, Zen Master.

Rob

Let us know how they work.

Hey "Just Fishing",

How come you weight your flies so heavily? I go to the other extreme and don't weight most of mine, but when I want a simulated leech wiggle, I weight the front part of the hook.

So.. what's your reasoning? Are you using these in streams? Me, I fish mostly lakes.

Not trying to be annoying by my questioning and I can see how it might be taken that way, but you have me curious about the way you weight your flies.

All this talk about tying flies really makes me feel most humbled. I started fly fishing last year and have not got to the point of tying my own flies yet. Not only does this limit me to store bought flies in generally basic patterns and sizes but it makes it difficult to understand what fly is what and what all of you are talking about when describing a fly that you have tied. It also limits me in identifying which fly is which. I am only saying this because I realize what handicap I have right now and that I will be making every effort to correct it this year but to get the word out to others in the beginning stages of fly fishing so that they can see what I see and maybe get to tying some flies sooner than I have.
By the way, thanks for the information and description on your special flies. Someday soon I hope to tie some and see you on the lake.

[ 05-18-2001: Message edited by: TJacobs ]

I tied up some orangish woolly buggers last night to play with. I got a tip about crawdads in eastern WA lakes (also lots of them in western WA lakes) and how the trout grew a little bigger in these lakes. Then.. the guy passed on a tip on "burnt orange" colored woolly buggers to imitate the crawdads.

So.. last night I tied up 8 to test out this weekend or next weekend. Don't think it will be this weekend as I have too many "honey-do" chores to do.

One more thing. I found out "burnt orange" and brown aren't too far apart in shades.

I think what I did last night will end up as prototypes as I work the material choices for tying.

Zen Leecher AKA Bill W.

I fish mainly with a floating line and it seems like it puts me down to where the larger trout are before the smaller ones get on.
I also tie them unweighted and use them with my 20' sink tip. I weight very few of my other type of flys.
I fish mainly in lakes and trolling.

The orange color works great in Colorado.