Video spotlight: Why Woolly Buggers Catch Fish

It's usually the first fly we learn to tie, and, for many of us, it's a go-to streamer pattern for the rest of our angling lives. The Woolly Bugger is a classic, and it's a classic because is works.

In the short video above, the folks at the New Fly Fisher do an outstanding job explaining why it works without saying a single word. Buggers are catch-all imitators--they mimic everything from leaches and worms to baitfish and even crawfish and big stonefly nymphs.

One of the best flies for chasing cruising carp and smallmouth bass in the spring on the flats of the Snake River here in Idaho is a size 4 olive Woolly Bugger, because it's an able imitation of a crawfish. In the early spring on the Henry's Fork, a dead-drifted size 6 black Bugger can be a killer, because it's a reasonable imitation of a soon-to-hatch salmonfly. 

Just because it's the pattern we teach the kids to tie at the annual expo every year doesn't mean it's a "simple" fly to fish--the Bugger is a fly-box staple. Don't leave home without handful of them. 

- Chris Hunt