When to fish brightly coloured woolly buggers?

[dcfoster]

I've seen different fishing shows where people have fished black buggers for different kinds of trout and white ones for steelhead. I've also hear that the olive ones are great since they can look like sculpins which spawning salmon/steelhead hate (correct me if I'm wrong).

However, I have a bunch of brightly coloured chartreuse and orange wooly buggers. I was wondering when I would use them (under what conditions) and for which species (Bass? Steelhead?).

Thanks.

 

[ghostrider408]

I can't speak for steelhead, but I would use brighter/more vibrant colors in stained or off-color water. Usually, the clearer the water, the more natural colors seem to work better. I have always stuck to bright days = bright/brighter flies (whites, natural greys, olives, etc.) and dark days/night = dark flies. The dark flies' silhouette is more visible to fish in darker conditions.

 

[dillon]

They are good colors for NW winter steelhead and fall salmon and would fish well on a wet fly swing.

 

[plecain]

I have as I remember - black, white, olive, chartreuse, yellow, brown, purple, pink, red and probably others.
I usually start with either black or olive. If those aren't working i'll rotate through the other colors until I find something that does work.
Trout, salmon, bass - makes no difference really. I just keep trying until I find what works.
Sometimes woolly buggers just aren't the ticket for that day/time.
So, it's on to something else. For me that usually means dries of some kind.

 

[karstopo]

Largemouth bass, catfish and sunfish like brightly colored buggers on the lake I live and fish on. I never tried brightly colored ones on trout, just olive or black and never fished for steelhead ( hope to change that). You did mention bass so I’m putting in my 2 cents.

I’ve tied up several colors and combinations of colors. Olive, olive and black, black, chartreuse tail and body with black hackle. Black tail and body, yellow , chartreuse, pink or purple hackle. All purple. Maybe another color or two.

Seems like the redear sunfish and bluegills like the yellows and chartreuse the best. I’d give purple as being a bass favorite. The catfish seem to be equal opportunity eaters. Water as it has been in the lake ranges from 1’ to 2’ feet or so of visibility and the season and water temperatures don’t seem to affect the bite tremendously except the catch rate is a little higher when it’s a bit warmer. I can’t say I see a correlation on cloud cover and color, but I might have missed it.

The only other place I’ve used a brightly colored bugger so far is out in the Texas salt marsh one time. I caught a couple of redfish on the black tail, yellow or chartreuse hackle bugger, but I did much better that day with my normal redfish patterns and the redfish tore up the Palmered hackle on the bugger to the point of being unusable after a couple of fish. So it’s mostly thumbs down on redfish. I have an idea that a small olive or black one might be just the thing for sheepshead, but have yet gotten a chance to test this.

Next round of tying, I’ve got some new colors of marabou and chenille coming and will see what the fish think of those.

 

[dcfoster]

Thanks for the reply, does that generally hold for Great Lakes Steelhead as well? Or are the diets (and hence patterns) drastically different.

 

[flytie09]

Will they work for Great Lakes Steelhead? Yes. Almost any fly swung with confidence will work.

I personally wouldn't suggest filling a fly box full of them. I like to use more subdued colored ones. Black, brown, olive, white, purple, are my go to patterns.......

I've just not had great success with large bright colored flies while fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead. I stand by some of my previous observations that the Great Lakes Steelhead or any hatchery steelhead are just not as aggressive as a wild anadromous Steelhead. And as such... the chances for hooking one on a brighter, more unnatural colored fly is lower.

Do I have emperical data counter to this? No. Would it be a good idea to try one when nothing else works? Yeah why not.

I'd say if you lost all your flies and nail knotted a neon blue shoe lace from your running shoes to a bare hook and swung it in the perfect bucket during prime Steelhead season... I'd put money on you that you'd hook one.

ft09

 

[teardrop]

Will they work for Great Lakes Steelhead? Yes. Almost any fly swung with confidence will work.

I personally wouldn't suggest filling a fly box full of them. I like to use more subdued colored ones. Black, brown, olive, white, purple, are my go to patterns.......

I've just not had great success with large bright colored flies while fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead. I stand by some of my previous observations that the Great Lakes Steelhead or any hatchery steelhead are just not as aggressive as a wild anadromous Steelhead. And as such... the chances for hooking one on a brighter, more unnatural colored fly is lower.

Do I have emperical data counter to this? No. Would it be a good idea to try one when nothing else works? Yeah why not.

I'd say if you lost all your flies and nail knotted a neon blue shoe lace from your running shoes to a bare hook and swung it in the perfect bucket during prime Steelhead season... I'd put money on you that you'd hook one.

ft09

I those colors and combinations for walleye in rivers. Also have caught smallies while swinging and stripping these flies


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[dcfoster]

I those colors and combinations for walleye in rivers. Also have caught smallies while swinging and stripping these flies


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So they’re definitely a good thing to have in my bass box?!


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[falcon53]

Sometimes I think trout get over exposed to standard woolly buggers at least on certain popular waters. Then a hot or different color may trigger a strike. On smaller unpressured streams I usually start with a small bugger (#12 or a #10). Sometimes that's all you need and I fish the fly all day. Its a buggy pattern.

 

[proheli]

I was in Tennessee and North Carolina over Christmas. One day in TN I was on a little tailwater and tried a white wb, no indicator, and I was the only one out of several guys that caught a fish (in this particular area). Moving up stream, there were a few other guys and I caught another one on a olive wb and only one other guy caught a fish (trout). A couple of days later I again tried a white wb and caught a fish. It was overcast. A week later in NC I found a great hole right behind a fantastic coffee house. I told my wife that before we returned home for Florida, I had to go fish that hole. Again I put on a white wb, no indicator, and before too long prety rianbow. I'm sold on the white wbs

 

[fredaevans]

On the upper Rogue river a 'dark pattern of some sort is the 'go to' fly. And not a big one for Steelhead and Pacific Salmon; I'll up to a size six hook but rare for me to use larger. Hooks are all 'fine wire' as they tend to set them self; very rare to have a fish straighten on of those out.

 

[ia_trouter]

A bugger in yellow/chartreuse is most always in my fly box. They don't see much use on my trout streams but every now and then when things are slow............. They definitely catch trout sometimes. If the water is muddy I'm throwing a black bugger, or no bugger at all. They see a lot more use when chasing bass or better panfish. If I was forced to only use those colors for warmwater species I wouldn't feel overly disadvantaged.

 

[kayo]

Dark days dark flyes, light days brite flyes.

 

[dcfoster]

I was in Tennessee and North Carolina over Christmas. One day in TN I was on a little tailwater and tried a white wb, no indicator, and I was the only one out of several guys that caught a fish (in this particular area). Moving up stream, there were a few other guys and I caught another one on a olive wb and only one other guy caught a fish (trout). A couple of days later I again tried a white wb and caught a fish. It was overcast. A week later in NC I found a great hole right behind a fantastic coffee house. I told my wife that before we returned home for Florida, I had to go fish that hole. Again I put on a white wb, no indicator, and before too long prety rianbow. I'm sold on the white wbsView attachment 9690

I was just going to place an order... I think I’ll add more white WBs! Thanks for the encouraging stories.



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[chechem]

Yeah, I found that a white wb was the key to catching large, early-morning browns on the Frying Pan (Colorado) last May. I tried all sorts of colors, but white was the best. By the time the sun hit the water, fishing with a wb was over, though!