How to fly fish the woolly bugger.
One of the great all around flies for fly fishing is called the woolly bugger. The woolly bugger works for many specie of fish including steelhead , trout, bass, and other. Many fly fishermen if having to make the choice of one fly to fish exclusively would choose the woolly bugger. The woolly bugger can be tied in many different colors (black, olive, tan) being the most popular.
We will concentrate on how to fish the woolly bugger for steelhead. Black is the color most steelhead fishermen fish . A black woolly bugger resembles a leach that will attack and feed on steelhead eggs. The steelhead will instinctively defend against the leach. For fly fishing the woolly bugger for steelhead you do want to have enough weight on your leader to just tap the bottom. For fly line you want a 6 to 8 weight.
Many steelhead fishermen will fish a woolly bugger and not tell other fisherman what they are fishing. The woolly bugger can be that effective. Most steelhead stream fisherman will be using your standard bread and butter egg sack. If you present the fish with some pattern they are not use to seeing will many times give you the edge in catching more fish.
The woolly bugger will work in deep or shallow running riffles. So if you spot steelhead in 2-3 feet of shallow water. Try the woolly bugger on them. Most of the time you will be fishing the woolly bugger in the deeper runs. For fly fishing equipment to use when fishing the woolly bugger you can see the post Steelhead fly fishing basic equipment.