A hungry fish hammered my Woolly Bugger and the fight was on. “Now Chris will see what fly-fishing is all about,” I said under my breath. “Boy, is he going to be surprised.” And he was.

You can fish the Woolly Bugger with floating or sinking line, dead drift or with some action. It can be fished anywhere in the water column but is most often fished close to or down on the bottom.

Years ago I attended a presentation by an expert on winter fishing for trout in Maryland and Pennsylvania streams. His only fly was a small, black, basic wooly bugger. Jay Sheppard’s Patuxent ...

The size 8 to 10 black wooly bugger, weighted or unweighted, is a staple of fly fishermen. The clip-on float techniques can be used for weighted flies like wooly bugger or Clouser patterns.

Woolly Buggers are best fished near the bottom in winter since they imitate both crayfish and baitfish. Hast favors Prince Nymphs with a tungsten head and the Dally’s tailwater jig that also ...

But on his second cast with the 2.5-inch Wooly Bugger, the fish slammed it hard and a half-hour fight began. The fish went nuts with powerful runs and dives, but it never jumped.

I only had three trout, one on a purple hoochie, one on a silver Smile blade spinner and one on a green frog No. 1 Needlefish. So Wickersham tied a leader on a wooly bugger and persuaded me to use it.

4) Don’t Be Afraid to Play Dead Patterns like the Zonker and Woolly Bugger that feature rabbit and marabou tails “breathe” and pulse just from the water and current acting upon them.

A bead-head Whiskey Woolly Bugger, as tied by Dan Hillhouse, is among the crayfish-imitating patterns likely to draw some interest from Elevenmile trout. With the ice rapidly disappearing ...

Dick Blume/The Post-StandardPopular trout flies for opening day include a Prince (No. 10), a Wooly Bugger (10), a Copper John (14), and a Nine Mile Scud (12). Longtime fly fisherman David Seifritz ...