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Instructions
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Note 1:
If you tightly spiral just one thin strip of foam on for the body, it
won't provide enough buoyancy to make the fly a positive floater. I
build the body with multiple layers of foam tied in just firmly enough
to keep them well seated.
Note
2 Fishing the Floating Woolly Bugger:
This is a very minor variation of Russ Blessing's wonderful fly, which
he developed in 1967 as an imitation of fish-fly larvae on the Little
Lehigh River in Pennsylvania. Back in 1992, when I was living near
Evergreen, Colorado, I was invited to fish some local trout ponds that
were leased by The Blue Quill Angler, a fine fly shop in nearby Bergen
Park. One was called Crystal Pond and had a good population of large
rainbow trout. The first time I fished the pond I put in a float tube
just at daybreak.
As I kicked out into the pond, I tied on a woolly bugger-almost a
reflex for me when fishing new trout water where there isn't any
obvious feeding
activity. I flipped the fly out to get it wet but it didn't sink
immediately, so I gave it a twitch to pull it under.
It didn't have time to sink; a good fish grabbed the fly as soon as it
moved and I
had my first trout of the day. That fish taking on the surface didn't
make much of an impression on me, but when the scene virtually repeated
itself a couple hours later, after I'd switched to a fresh fly, I began
thinking about the possibilities of a woolly bugger fished as a dry
fly.
I started tying up woolly buggers on light-wire hooks, substituting
dubbed fur for the usual chenille body, and dry-fly hackle for the
webby
saddles I'd been using for woollies intended to sink. Treated with fly
floatant, these "dry" woolly buggers worked pretty well, especially for
stillwater fish. But they'd usually absorb enough water after a fish or
two that I'd have to change flies, and those long bodies were taking
too
long to dub at the vise. So I substituted closed-cell foam for the
dubbing.
This floating version of the woolly bugger is the result. I've found
it especially effective for bank cruisers, casting the fly a little
behind or to the near side of the fish, and then inducing a take with
little twitches.
For bank cruisers, this is my go-to fly.
Another good method I've found for fishing this fly in stillwaters is
on a high-density sinking line.
I let the line sink until it's on the bottom, but the fly is buoyed up
by the foam.
Depending on the length of the leader and the speed of the retrieve,
the fly will ride anywhere from a foot
to several feet off the bottom. It's a very effective method,
especially in weedy water that would foul a fly fished on the bottom,
or where the fish
are cruising right over the vegetation.
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