Get Your Wooly Bugger On!

Dave Jolie Oct 22nd 2017

Its autumn, the leaves are turning, there’s a chill in the air, the Brown Trout are spawning, and our local rivers aren’t nearly as crowed. What time is it? It’s Bugger time!

Nothing gets me fired up like fishing for big, bad, brown trout….and nothing brings more fish to the net like a wooly bugger. This streamer pattern is the most popular pattern in the world.

Why? It simply catches fish.

This pattern comes in a huge variety of colors, sizes, beaded, no bead, conehead etc. So what is it supposed to be? Nothing in particular. Kind of like the Adams fly, the bugger is not specific in its imitation. It can be a baitfish, a damsel, a leech…whatever.

It is also extremely versatile.

It can be swung, it can be stripped, it can be nymphed with an indicator….the options are endless. This time of year, I’m normally stalking brown trout. They will hit the whole range of flies from dry, to wet, to streamer. Typically, I’m on a hike. I’ll put in on a section of river and wade it for as long as I can. I skinny down my gear, only take one rod, and hit the water.

The rod I take is my 4 weight with floating line with 12 leader.

The streams aren’t super deep, so I’m not worried about getting down too far. My bugger selection is either weightless or bead head depending on the situation. I always have black, white, olive, red, brown and purple. This time of year I’ll complement that out with our ginger color and the bow river bugger. These two for some reason just do exceptionally well this time of year.

If I’m going at night, purple is the way to go.

Here, I’m using the sparkle minnow black light special. This bugger imitation just electrifies at night in the water! It’s definitely a go to!