September 20 Meeting
Fishing from the Delaware River Club
New Location
The September 20th meeting of the Canandaigua Lake Chapter of Trout Unlimited will welcome guides from the Delaware River Club, Starlight, PA at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, Building 5 Auditorium, 400 Fort Hill Avenue, Canandaigua. The meeting will begin at 730pm and is open to the public without charge. Guides will introduce current techniques and a full overview of fishing near the Club’s location at the junctions of the West Branch of the Delaware River and the main stem.
Please feel free to bring a friend (always welcome).
We will have our usual raffle.
So . . . Remember to bring dollars or flies!
Need directions the to VA Medical Center? Click directions
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Fishing Wooly Buggers
Russell Blessing, who invented the pattern, says he usually starts out dead-drifting the Bugger, "to see what happens." If that doesn't produce, he will add jigging motions on the strip, jig it back at the end of the drift as Barry Beck described, cast up and across the current and let it swing, use hand-strip retrieves. "Sometimes," he says, "it takes fast strips. Some of the guys around here will strip it as fast as they can. Almost everything works, some of the time." Amen to that.
Al Rockwood, the Michigan steelhead guru and steelhead fly tier, says, "In my opinion, the Woolly Bugger is the most effective wet fly for trout in Michigan. It works for steelhead and salmon in bigger sizes. I have found it deadly for brookies in Labrador, steelhead in Michigan, and browns in New Zealand. Dead-drifted or stripped, down deep or on the surface, the Woolly Bugger is a sure attractor pattern." California's Ralph Cutter has written, "The Woolly Bugger is an intern's fly: It can't be fished wrong." The Lake Taneycomo guide Brian Schaffer, of Branson, Missouri, calls the Bugger the "Fly of the Century." He says he does 90 percent of his night fishing with a black Woolly Bugger (often tied with fluorescent lime green thread and three strands of Krystal Flash added to the tail), working his way to lighter colors as necessary. "The best thing about having a Woolly tied to your leader," he says, "is you almost can't fish it wrong."
Although the Woolly Bugger can be fished anywhere in the water column, it probably is more often fished close to or down on the bottom. That's why most people tie them weighted. How much you weight a fly determines how quickly it will sink and how well it will stay down in a current. The aforementioned Brian Schaffer ties them both ways, in sizes 4 to 12, using 10 to 24 wraps of 0.10- to 0.30-inch-diameter lead wire on his weighted Woollies.
Where you place the weight affects the way it will swim. Lead wire that's centered on the shank creates a Woolly Bugger that's better for bottom-bouncing than for swimming higher in the water column; it just won't produce an enticing action when twitched or stripped in midwater. Slide those wire wraps forward or backward along the shank, and the Bugger fishes altogether differently. Mount a split shot, a bead, or a cone head at the front of the shank, and your Woolly Bugger will have a rising-diving, yo-yo action on a stop-and-go retrieve.
Unweighted Woolly Buggers have, I believe, a more seductively sinuous action than heavily weighted ones. The problem is getting them down where the fish are. If you want a yo-yo action, crimp a split shot onto the tippet immediately ahead of the fly. If you prefer a fly that will respond better to your manipulations of the line and rod, crimp the shot farther up the tippet, or use a sinking leader, a sinking-tip line, or a fullsinking line. Weighted leaders and crimped shot will keep a sunken fly swimming closer to the bottom than either a sinking or sinking-tip line. It's a simple matter of geometry: When the line is weighted, you will be pulling it toward you, off the bottom. Keeping the weight closer to the fly (in or on the leader or the fly itself) keeps it deeper, longer. Sinking-tip lines offer a compromise.
You can dead-drift, swing, bottom-bounce, crawl, or faststrip a Woolly Bugger. Given the right time and place, each of those techniques will take fish. If one doesn't work, try another. Or combine two or more on the same retrieve. Barry Beck, writing in The Fly Fisherman, said, "[T]he most productive technique is to pump [the Woolly Bugger] back with a slow, patient retrieve." (The retrieve is preceded by pinching a B or BB shot immediately ahead of the fly and casting it up and across the current.) He defined the winning retrieve as a combination of 3- to 5-inch, hand-over-hand strips accompanied by a 4- to 5-inch, up-and-down rod motion. That combination gives the Bugger's marabou tail the proper "breathing" action that turns fish on.
For trout, Barry Beck likes to fish Woolly Buggers in lowlight times of day — the first two or three and the last two hours of daylight — or at night. For bass, he concentrates on deep channels and runs during the afternoon and on the flats and shore areas and the edges of lilypad beds early in the morning and as night approaches. For bluegills and crappies, Beck likes an allwhite Bugger. For pike and pickerel, he fishes yellow or red-andyellow Buggers over weedbeds with a fast, hand-strip retrieve. Whether you weight your Woolly Buggers or not, you can fish them as baitfish, as leeches, hellgrammites, aquatic worms, nymphs, crayfish, or who-knows-what-else.
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Fishing Woolly Buggers
to Imitate Different Fish Foods
Although a Woolly Bugger will probably catch fish no matter how you fish it, you can move the odds in your favor by fishing it to resemble whatever forage species may be about.
Baitfish
Think of the Woolly Bugger as a streamer. Use a stop-and-go retrieve to give the Bugger
the darting motion of a nervous baitfish. From time to time, insert a long, fast strip
into the retrieve, as if the baitfish had spotted a predator and decided to scram. Twitching
an unweighted Bugger just below the surface sometimes makes fish mistake it for a wounded
minnow. To imitate darters, keep the fly on the bottom and use fast, short strips. Sculpins
swim a bit more deliberately, so you can also fish the Bugger along the bottom a bit more
slowly. If the stream you are fishing has both darters and sculpins, fish your bugger like
a sculpin: They're slower and easier to catch, and fatter besides, and predatory fish have
figured that out.
Leeches
To imitate leeches, your fly must be long and supple and swim with vertical undulations.
In midwater, leeches don't swim as much as they writhe and struggle while the current
carries them along. When leeches are hugging the bottom or being bruited about in fast
water, they aren't nearly so long and thin and supple. However you fish your Woolly Buggers,
they might be taken for leeches. Then again, they might be taken for something else.
You never know.
Nymphs
Although most anglers think of the Woolly Bugger as a general-purpose streamer or
leech imitation, Russell Blessing had the hellgrammite in mind and he ties them short
and small to imitate caddis and fishfly larvae. In different sizes and colors, the Bugger
probably also passably imitates or strongly suggests the nymphal forms of dragonflies,
damselflies, craneflies, stoneflies, and the larger mayflies. Fish a Woolly Bugger
the way you would any other nymph: deaddrift, in Leisenring lifts, or twitched
along the bottom. Or high-stick an upstream nymph presentation (what Brits call
long-tumble nymphing).
Minnesotan Reed Munson usually fishes his Buggers where runs or riffles tail out into pools, casting across the stream and letting the current drift the fly down into the head of the pool. But if the water is low or very clear, he says, "most likely the trout will see you." That's when he switches to upstream nymphing techniques. "You can sneak up on the fish with less likelihood of being seen," he says. "Look for a good run. I like heads of pools, large submerged rocks, or undercut banks. Cast the Woolly Bugger upstream of the fishy-looking spot. Watch the strike indicator. Hopefully, as the Bugger passes the likely-looking area, you'll see your indicator jump."
Crayfish
I am convinced that trout, bass, and panfish often take the Woolly Bugger for a
fleeing crayfish. When I want to present a crayfish imitation, I will often fish a
Bugger or some variation thereof. Many so-called crayfish patterns are designed to
look more like crayfish in the vise than in the water, are a bear to cast, and often
twist the leader. The few patterns that don't suffer from these afflictions — the
Clouser Crayfish being a notable exception — are a lot more difficult or time-consuming
to tie than Woolly Buggers. (My love of fishing Clouser Crayfish is offset by my fear
of losing the expensive-to-buy and tedious-to-tie critters, which too often keeps them
in the safety of my flybox.)
Many fly fishers use medium-length, medium-speed strip retrieves to fish crayfish patterns. It works, but it doesn't mimic the way crayfish move. When crayfish aren't being threatened, they crawl along very slowly. When threatened, they may rapidly scoot several yards at a clip. So don't be afraid to mix in both slow, steady, hand-twist retrieves and long, fast strips.
Saltwater Prey
In salt water — from which leeches, hellgrammites, and crayfish are absent — anglers
often fish their Woolly Buggers in midwater and near the surface. Salty Buggers tend
to be gaudier than freshwater Buggers (steelhead and Pacific-salmon Buggers excepted),
as well as bigger. What do saltwater fish take them for? I don't know — lighted-up
squid? Tropical reef fish? Royal Wulffs? But they sure do take them. A long-tailed,
silverygreen Bugger, tied on a 6X-long hook and stripped fast, can probably pass for a
needlefish or sand eel in salt water. In Fly Fishing for Bonefish (1993), Dick Brown
writes of the Woolly Bugger, "This ubiquitous freshwater pattern, in its original olive
and black colors, is a good goby imitation for shoreline and tidepool areas. In tan or
flesh colors, it is also effective as a polychaete worm pattern." (Later in the book he
clarifies the polychaete pattern as having an "orange or flesh-colored body and
white marabou and saddle hackle....")
Although I haven't fully field-tested it, a large, pale tan or gray Bugger with short or clipped hackle just might pass muster as a squid. Denmark's Martin Joergensen, who probably knows as much about taking sea-run brown trout in salt water as any man alive, has written (in Saltwater Flyfishing – Britain & Northern Europe by Paul Morgan and Friends, 1998), "If you have the choice of one single fly, choose a black or grey Woolly Bugger, size 6. This fly represents the stem of many of the most successful flies for sea trout in salt water." This, from a man who has designed many of the best-known and most successful flies used to fish for brown trout in the Baltic Sea.
No matter how or where you fish your Woolly Buggers, don't be in a hurry to snatch the fly out of the water for another cast. Because of the way marabou "breathes" in water (even — no, especially — when the fly is motionless in the slightest bit of current), you should always give the tail a chance to do its thing. Lift the fly in the water column, then let it fall slowly without any input from you. Let it dangle in the current at the end of a drift or retrieve for a few moments, enticing a following fish to grab it before it gets away.
You won't live long enough to experiment with all the different ways Woolly Buggers can be fished, to take advantage of the myriad variations in materials and tying methodologies currently in use on waters and vises around the world. It's hard to go wrong, fishing Woolly Buggers. Whenever the fishing slows down, try them even when experience dictates that you fish a wildly different fly.
Mark R. Tompkins, of Sacramento, California, related an eye-opening home-water experience while photographing for this book. In describing three of the photos, he wrote:
"The rainbow in the slides was one of the most beautiful I have ever caught. And he was one of the strongest, too. He jumped at least half a dozen times before I could bring him in. And I don't think I would have caught him if it weren't for you. You see, I normally fish two tiny caddis nymphs in the Calaveras River. But I decided to give one of my dumbbelleyed Olive Woolly Buggers a try. On the first cast, my line went tight. You just never know!"
I can't promise you a trophy rainbow on your first cast with a Woolly Bugger,
but I can safely promise you will over time catch a variety of fish under a variety
of conditions, often when nothing else is working.
~~ Gary Soucie, Excerpted from Woolly Wisdom, Frank Amato Publications (December 2005),
232 pages, hardcover and soft cover
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Prez sez . . 
At the end of August, the new L.L. Bean store in Eastview Mall invited the Chapter to set up a table at a special, invitation only event for their customers. Thanks to Max Hillring, Norm Brust, Mark Donahue and Will Faber for helping out, passing out Chapter information, "pushing" our Fly Tying School and our Fly Fishing School. We also left information about Chapter events with the sales people at L.L. Bean to give to interested fly flying people. Looks like we have a good relation and partnership now with L.L. Bean!
Next month we will elect three members to the Board to serve for a three year period. Please contact me if you have and interest in a Board position. Currelntly, Mike Linse, Max Hillring and Gerry Luzum terms are expiring.
We will be moving our meeting location from Wegmans. As you know, they just want too much money for their meeting rooms. We are going to the Canandaigua VA Medical Center and using the Building 5 Auditorium. This is much larger, the video facilities are there for us. And parking is convenient to the building. Exact directions to 400 Fort Hill Avenue can be found on our web pages.
Several members have worked to establish the calander for 2010-2011. We have a good one. All confirmed dates are listed on the Chapter web site, under "Chapter Meetings". Please go take a look. Beleive it or not, but we are already talking to folks who want to come to our meetings and offer a presentation for the following season! We are always looking for an idea for future meetings. Do you have a suggestion? Please contact me ( jpc@travela.com or 585/360-1812).
I'm goin' fishin'.
~~ C
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SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
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For Sale / Help Wanted --
10 weight outfit: Sage Xi2 9 foot, 10 weight. 4 pieces. Ross BG6 reel with extra spool. Retail is $630 rod, $415 reel, and $195 spool. Call Bob Mulcahy at 585/889-8591. Best offer.
Willow Pond Aqua Farms offers a learn to fish program for the regional community and tourism industry. We are seeking a person who appreciates fishing and has the business skills necessary to direct and coordinate this comprehensive program. Please contact Jim Kennedy for more information at 585/704-2754, or by email, jpk2@frontiernet.net.
Wanted: Someone who can help re-design the Chapter web pages. Please contact Jean Chaintreuil if interestd: 585/360-1812, or by email, jpc@travela.com. Knowledge of CCS very helpfull.
Wanted: Someone to design a general brochure for the Canandaigua Lake TU Chapter. Needed to hand out when we have a table or display to "tell all" about the Chpater. Please contact Jean Chaintreuil if interestd: 585/360-1812, or by email, jpc@travela.com.
Items For Sale: ???
Email jpc@travela.com with the details and we will list your item(s) for sale.
How else can we say it?
It's a free Want Ad.
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Volunteers Needed for Healing Waters Project
Please click on the logo below to learn more about the Canandaigua Lake Trout Unlimited and Project Healing Waters partnership. Thanks in advance for your participation and assistance.
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September 20, Chapter Meeting. Fishing from the Delaware River Club.
September 27, Healing Waters meeting, 7pm at the VA.
October 18, Chapter Meeting. Fishing Lake Erie; Jim Markam, DEC.
October 25, Healing Waters meeting, 7pm at the VA.
November 15, Chapter Meeting. Dick Steinheider, baby tarpon fishing in Venezuela.
November 22, Healing Waters meeting, 7pm at the VA.
December 22, No Chapter Meeting.