Bead Head Woolly Bugger

The Woolly Bugger is a wet streamer fly fished sub-surface.  The fly is the most popular streamer pattern in the world and is used for trout, saltwater and freshwater fishing.  It widely imitates large nymphs, baitfish, leeches, drowning insects, shrimp and crayfish.  Its wide appeal is one of the reasons it is a popular streamer pattern.

The fly is credited to Russell Blessing who created the fly in 1967.  It is a must have for your fly box.

Presenting the Woolly Bugger is very easy to do.  Cast the fly upstream, wait two seconds and then begin to strip the fly back aggressively.  The fly will often attract aggressive fish who are feeding.  The strike on a woolly bugger can be impressive as aggressive feeding fish will literally hit the Woolly Bugger before letting other fish see it.

Popular sizes for trout are 6 – 12.  Often anglers will size the woolly bugger to the size of the fish they are casting to.  So most angers will keep a variety of sizes in their box.  If you had to fish only one size, a 10 or 12 will work for most small to medium streams.

Bass and many other pan fish will hit the Woolly Bugger too.  Again, you can size the Bugger to the fish you are casting too.  For small pan fish a size 10 – 12 will work.  For Bass and other larger species sizes 4 – 8 work well.

The Woolly Bugger comes in a variety of colors and variations.  From Black, White, Olive and Red there are deep water versions which are weighted more.  One great variation is the propeller Woolly Bugger which has a small propeller on the front of the fly.  This propeller will spin as the Bugger is retrieved in the water.

We offer a Woolly Bugger kit which includes 4 different colors with 4 different sizes, the Non-Beaded Woolly Bugger, Deep Water and the Propeller Woolly Bugger varieties.