3-28 Report

[Hooksetter]

By 8:30 I had five on the bank and 8 misses. All came on an gold bead olive Wooley Bugger. At one time I had five bites on five casts.

I would recommend tying them with a little weight in them or a splitshot in front if you are fishing the deep wholes. If you fish in front of a falls area you will not need the weight. I could not get a bite on anything else. I tried a black bugger, orange glowball, and a crackleback but nothing produced like the bugger. I just wish I did not run out. Some came untied and some broke off.

Tim, thanks for the info!!!

[Thom]

Sounds like you had a good time. They usually slam a bugger.

There recently was a thread on how to fish a bugger. Can you share what method you used. Did you chuck upstream or across current, strip back, dead float and where did you get the hits?

Curious minds want to know. In a recent thread some found the bugger their most productive fly others said they never caught a fish on one. I am sure that it is all in the color which you noted and the presentation which you obviously had a good feel for.

Thanks for the post.

[DaddyO]

Sounds like you had a good day. I'm anxious to see your response on how you fished the bugger. My brother is headed over there with a group of friends tomorrow. When you answer the bugger question can you also tell us how the water conditions are? Clear or cloudy, up, down or normal, fast, slow or normal.

[Hooksetter]

Gentlemen I am new at this so please bare with me.

I fished one pool down from the big falls. I found that the most successful casts were across current with a slow steady retrieve. I would do what I call a finger retrieve and they would KILL it. It was one of those days that you could feel the strike not just see it.

Water conditions were above normal and cloudy. I would guess three feet of visability may be four.

I did try a black bugger with gray hackle, but had no takers.

I did not see another fly fisherman, so I do not know what else might have worked.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Thom]

Thanks for sharing. That is the kind of info that we are looking for.

[PerfectDrift]

Fished the catch and release area Thurs night from 4-7 and did well (by my standards). This was obviously before the last batch of rain but I really liked the conditions through the area. Good flow, very wadable (maybe a foot high), and although "off" color by RR standards it wasn't dirty just more cloudy. Fished a jig head egg that Jeremy Hunt ties and when I had the depth right which added additionaly weight to this already weighted fly so that it was ticking the bottom I could almost be assured of a hit for a good period of time. The problem is telling the difference between bottom and strike and if you guess wrong here you will be in a tree real quick. I was trying to due more of a wrist mend up stream on the strike which was resulting in less good sets for me (landed about 7 and missed that many in about an hour). When the egg turned off I fished a SJ worm (brown) and they liked that well also (about another 7). Probably third was the olive bh wooly that I was drifting and picked up a couple. I fished the worm as a trailer for a while behind a Y2K and didn't get anything on the Y2K but it might have gathered enough attention for them to turn onto the worm. Tried a midge trailer for awhile and didn't get any takers on that. Fished both 5X and 6X flouro on the main fly and tried a little 7X on some trailers but don't necessarily think it was needed.

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Thanks for the update. I'm heading down for a day trip on Tuesday. I was curious what might be working, although you can almost always count on the wooly, crackleback and the egg. I've also had a great deal of luck lately with a #16 Renegade. But that was before the rain.

John

[MOBass]

Good info. I fished Saturday and the green wollie was hot. Adding a small shot was necessary to get it down in the swift water. My dad did well with a spinning rod and 1/8 oz. jig in the same green color. Decent size fish compared to my last trip a couple of years ago.