Wollybuggers!

[Corey Bechtold]

Hi all. I was wondering what colors, sizes, tail types, etc, that have turned Crappies and Sunfish for you? I have had good luck with a tan chanille body, grizzly hackle, and red yarn tail. Some of my biggest Panfish have come to this little bugger but I was looking for a couple new ideas to try for my next time out.

Good Luck,

Corey Bechtold

[tie flyer]

Corey, I haven't tried this combination but for panfish I think a yellow chenille body with a black hackle would be killer. The only addition to that color combination would have to be white - tail, I guess.

Black wooly buggers or wooly worms (yes, red tail) have worked excellent as a dropper with a red/white or yellow/white clouser.

[Ice-9]

Try some cactus chenille instead of regular chenilee (Estaz is very like) to get more flash and depth than the regular pipecleaner stuff. I also got some variant marabou for tails that looks very cool--it's barred natural tans, russets, and deep brown that made some great buggers for smallies (that imitate the juvenile smallmouth).

[Corey Bechtold]

Thanks you guys! I'll get tying tonight.

Corey Bechtold

[deeky]

I'm just getting into tying, put my first woolies together today. In regards to color, there seems to be a lot more converstaion about it in the crappie forum. Wouldn't those colors translate well into flies? At least that's what I have gone by when buying materials.

In that forum, I have picked up on black, pink, purple, white, yellow, etc. (Looking at the contributors in this thread, that's a big "duh".) Today I put together a woolly worm with black chenile, pink hackle, and a flashabou tail instead of the standard yarn. It looks good to me - black/pink is one of my favorite combos for crappies. But obviously I haven't tried it on the fish yet.

Anyway, am I totaly off base following that thinking? It's not like black/pink is a natural color that plastics imitate, but it works for the fish. Probably heresy to a purist fly tier, but I'm more interested in the fish's opinion. What do you think?

Deeky

[ice_shack]

Hey Deeky - wooly buggers are a versatile pattern. They will catch just about any species of fish it just depends on how they are tied. For crappies I tie bright colors like pink and chartruse. For smallies I tie to imitate crawfish and shad. Trout I tie to imitate leeches.

All the colors you have will work just maybe not for the same fish.

Tight lines.