The Mighty Woolly Bugger

[Helios]

I have been fly fishing for a very short time and almost all of it being stillwater, and I have found this fly to be the most effective for me.

I would like to now if a lot of people on this forum are finding the Woolly Bugger as productive and what color variations, sizes, setups (i.e. Dropper Rigs) and retrieves are for you the most successful with this fly.

[core fly]

I think its still oneofthe best go to flies when things are tough or exploring new water.Mostwill just not admit it

[FlyFanatic]

Some people love it, most despise it.. but for no particular reason. (please enlighten me why!)

Fact is that the wooly bugger in its standard form or some variation is probably one of the most versatile/effective patterns around. Dont let anyone put you off, use it and enjoy the great fish you will catch with it!

After all, that is what it is about, catching fish and enjoying yourself!

I like any olive & black variations, in various sizes from very small to huge! Retrieves normally is quite slow (fig 8), but sometimes it even works to strip it fast. Whatever works for you!

Enjoy!

[Korrie]

One of the must have flies, in your box.
From the standard black and olive to orange, purple white chartreuse etc.

A variant is the Goldilocks, which I have started to tie in different colors as well and had good results at Lakensvlei.

as for the retrieves, just about every one in the book works, sometimes as a combination with 2 or 3 retrieves, giving the results

[Andre]

awesome all round fly, and many derivatives exist of it. Good idea to have all colours, from naturals to bright orange and red. Different times and conditions require different colours, so you just have to prospect. The most important though, is the movement you give the fly. colour is important, but when the fly is more than a few feet down, the colour changes anyway, due to light frequencies becoming depressed. deeper than a few feet, all colours look black anyway. also when a fish looks up at the fly, he sees a sillouhette, so you know as well as I do...what colour is a sillouhette???.....yes, Black. A fish's eye has a different composition of "rods and cones", so they are more adapted to see contrast, than to see colour. Its a debate that has raged since the beginning of time, about flies and colour, and will still rage forevermore.

[MCC]

Strangely, I don't have any standard Woolly Buggers in my Stillwater boxes.

Many similar patterns but somehow the standard fly is just not quite there..... It's certainly a good fly and it catches a load of fish but there are so many patterns that are simply better (even if the differences are minute). The WB is also only good as a point fly when fishing more than one pattern and this is probably why I don't fish them anymore. Longer tails combined with more mobile body materials makes for a more suitable point fly.

Just my 2c :-)

[Korrie]

I agree with MC, all my palmering on the body is done with either soft hackle or soft hen hackle, this gives lots of extra movement, with the teased out artificial dubbing, which gives extra movement and glitter/shine, which adds to the movement or illusion of movement.

But I have had good success with the WB, on 1st or 2nd dropper, followed by a smaller fly.
When fishing still waters, I think of my 3 flies as a "team effort" and the success, many times of the "last fly or point fly" is the combined work of the droppers. Or depending on the retrieve, the success of the 1 or 2nd dropper is a fish taker, is an indication of the effectiveness of the fly and makes the changing of the last fly to the same fly a necessity.
My 2c

[smallstreams.co.za]

Standard WB with the hackle replaced with split-thread CDC is a real killer.

[E.T.]

Whitlock's Lectric Leech will outfish most "Wooly Bugger" Type Patterrns...

http://www.danica.com/flytier/bobpet...tric_leech.htm

When all else fails, this fly will put you onto fish.

[MCC]

ET, I see they refer to it as a good Bass fly :-)