Colors Of Wooly Buggers

[Hodge36]

Ive never tried using wooly buggers on trout until recently. I have always used green on the little j for smallmouth but have yet to have luck with trout. Since the wooly bugger can represent anything i thought what would a green represent so is it the color?

 

[flipnfly]

depending on the size olive could represent a damsel fly or a baitfish or an olive crayfish..... or just a really big burrowing nymph.. well im sure there more than just the color it could be the clarity of the water or the presentation are you stripping or drifting or swinging and then stripping ? also what is in the water... what colors are the baitfish? or is this said woolly bugger not olive but chartruse or a brighter green?

 

[Hodge36]

It is an olive color. To tell you the truth iavent even seen any bait fish. I am fishing the Little J a few miles fom ironsville, the water is very clear. I am just stripping it, I have tried different speeds and depths multiple times. No luck

 

[jayL]

Buggers represent everything and nothing at the same time.

Fish eat stuff because it looks and acts like a food item. It doesn't necessarily have to resemble anything. A bugger of any color looks like food to them. You could get a bug from china and drop it in the stream, and something would at least try to eat it.

 

[Fishidiot]

Hodge,
A dark green WB would likely represent a crayfish to a smallmouth bass although there's a host of prey species that tend to be a olive or muddy green color. With regards to trout, I like my WB's tied with a shorter tail than bass flies. When the water is clear try light olive, light brown, or white. When the water is dirty or otherwise dark, I like black or combo black with chartruese. As a very broad rule of thumb:
dark day, dark fly
light day, light fly.

 

[stevehalupka]

^ or just the opposite.

have an array of colors... one day it's black, the next brown, the next yellow.

 

[MKern]

There's no wrong color or color combination of bugger.

I think a standard assortment would be: black, white, olive, green, brown and silver.

I think you could also carry: red, yellow, orange, chartruse, etc. without anyone thinking your nuts.

Then there are hackle options....sometimes switching the hackle color is all it takes to give the fly an edge. This gives the fly a little contrast.

I will say I prefer the multi color if I'm going away from the standard colors. By this I mean, I give it a shellback with the marraboo tail excess, but the chenelle is a different color, usually lighter, to represent a back and belly effect of many baitfish.

 

[gfen]

MKern wrote:
I will say I prefer the multi color if I'm going away from the standard colors. By this I mean, I give it a shellback with the marraboo tail excess,

Clever. So you just pull some marabou fibers from the tail over the body? Use the palmered hackle to bind it down?

 

[MKern]

I use all of the marabou (the tags ends that you would trim off) and yes the hackle to bind it down.

I'm guessing wire and hackle would work too, but I don't secure my other buggers with wire either.

 

[melvinp]

I like brown my self.

 

[osprey]

I think the inventor was Russ Blessing from the Cumberland valley and i think i read somewhere that it was supposed to resemble a swimming leech.

 

[wetnet]

Just a question.

Does anyone play with hot spots mixed in the traditional Black, Olive or any other color? Crystal flash or tie the head off in a bright orange?

Not just trout, but warm water as well. Just curious.

 

[osprey]

Wetnet.........i always use a few strands of some kind of flash material in the marabou tail , like two to four sstrands on each side , flashabou , crystal flash , easter basket straw , supple tinsel (like christmas tree tinsel) don't over do it , and use different colors. I have used thread of brighter color like orange and white.

 

[afishinado]

My favorite bugger color of all time for trout & SMB is olive with black marabou. I like to use variegated chenille to give a mottled effect. Also I use some olive crystal flash in the tail. Other good colors are all black, brown variegated, and white. A little crystal flash in the tail gives it some sparkle.

 

[jdaddy]

Didn't Henry Ford say "Any colour as long as it's black"?

 

[gfen]

Odd, I never gave my 2c here?

My favourite colour is peacock herl. Not peacock chenille, ice dubbing (which works), or any sub, but the actual herls.

These are the only buggers that seem to work for me, although I don't test very often and bother with anything but anymore, so that whole faith in your fly thing applys.

I've seen some pretty interesting variations on the bugger lately, like the shellback idea up there, but using swords or herl in the tail then pulling over THEN palmering, or the Whitlock 'Lectric Leech with pearl mylar down the sides and in a collar (which looks awesome).

 

[Bluewing]

I think Buggers are a good gateway drug to some other top notch streamers. I seldom fish buggers any more, but i throw an awful lot of meat. Buggers just got me in the door. The colors mentioned by some of the other Lads are spot on.

 

[wsender]

Bluewing wrote:
I think Buggers are a good gateway drug to some other top notch streamers. I seldom fish buggers any more, but i throw an awful lot of meat. Buggers just got me in the door. The colors mentioned by some of the other Lads are spot on.

Is sink-tip required for proper streamer fishing? I've heard mixed opinions on this and am looking for more opinions on the matter.

 

[bam]

If you're going on an all streamer run, I'd stick with a sink or intermediate tip if you plan on stripping. If you're fishing them slow, a sink tip can get you in trouble if your streamers are weighted.

I tie zonkers and articulated streamers but seem to come back to weighted rubber legged buggers by the end of the day. Faster to tie, sink better and seem to perform just as well.

 

[Bluewing]

W,
See PM.

Generally "it depends". Water type, etc.