Using The Wooly Bugger to Land Bluegill

Today’s quick trip to Smith Lake proved to be a wash for the crappie. It was a good thing I had my fly rod along to salvage the trip. The water temp was a cool 60 degrees warming a little to 62 before the trip ended. The crappie was not the only species to have lockjaw; the bass was in lockdown mode as well. There was no action with the Boogle Bug on top so there was only one option left and that was to go down under using the Wooly Bugger.

This was one of the nicest female bluegills I have ever landed on Smith using the cream bugger. I wasn’t using my sink tip line today, which meant I had to let the bass bug line get the bugger down at least 6 feet in the strike zone. I feel I would have landed more bluegills if I had been using the sink tip, but I had to go with the combo I had at hand, which was my 9 ft. 6 weight. Even this nice female gave the 6 weight a workout.

This healthy bull bluegill hit the bugger over a submerged brush pile that was meant to house crappie. I was a little surprised that I didn’t land some crappie using the color bugger because I felt like I was actually duplicating a small shad with its size and color pattern. The cream was the only color that would produce on this slow day, making me realize that I need to add some more cream buggers to my fly box. I will count both gills today, putting me 47 away from my quest now.