Pro Tips

“Leave the stripping to the girls at Fred’s Lounge- dead drift your wooly buggers”

Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that. But, I have never in fifteen years had a new client step in my boat that fully understood how I wanted them to fish a bugger, so I figured this might be a good tip to put in print.

Whenever I mention to a client that I’d like them to try a bugger, I often get that scared, deer in the headlights look, followed by a comment about how they don’t like bugger fishing because it is too much work to be constantly stripping as fast as you can. Over the years, we have developed a technique that is a hybrid between indicator nymph fishing and stripped streamer fishing. Before I get too far into the details, let me explain why it works.

Most of the waters of Western Montana are medium to higher gradient streams with a lot of pocket water. We have a lot of big stoneflies hatches. The stonefly family includes the famous Salmonflies, Golden Stones, Skwallas, and Acrenuria. These stoneflies are all greater than an inch long, and all are on at least a two to five year cycle as nymphs. We also have a lot of sculpins in our rivers. That means that our fish eat stonefly nymphs all year long, and are very accustomed to seeing a big meal come rolling down their feeding lane. The technique I will describe tries to imitate the behavior of both stonefly nymphs and sculpin minnows in the same technique.

Here is my theory…If you see a great seam wrapping around a boulder and extending downstream for 10-20 feet, why would you only keep your fly on (or under) that seam for only one or two feet? With a dry fly you would make you cast and set up your mend so that you could get as long a drift as possible, but most people throw their buggers in and strip them right back out of the feeding lane, and hope that the fish will chase. Granted, fish will charge after a fast stripped fly occasionally, but only when the water temps are right and the stars are properly aligned.

Set Up

I tie my buggers on size 6 and 8, 3x long hooks. Almost always with a single brass bead, some rubber legs (to look like a stonefly) and I usually stack all the hackle just behind the bead, for the tapered look of a sculpin, rather than the usual palmer style. Vary your colors as the dominant stonefly hatches and water color change. Black and orange for Salmonflies, brown and yellow for goldens, etc. Add more color to the fly as the water becomes more turbid.

Rig your leader with about 10” of tipped so that one or two BB size shot can be placed above the knot. I always prefer this to a heavily weighted fly. Place your indicator three to six feet above your fly depending on the depth. I prefer the pinch on foam or corky type indicators, rather than yarn. Yarn does not stay buoyant when repeatedly twitched though the water.

Pocket Water

Let me paint a picture of a typical holding seam near the bank. A boulder, stump, or protruding gravel bar will push out into the current and create a pocket of slower water. The seam (the line between the fast and slow) will extend down from the object until it dissipates, and the water speeds become even again. The slow water directly behind the object will often re-circulate upstream in an eddy. The water just down from the boulder will generally be the deepest part of the seam, and then it will become increasingly shallow as the seam dissipates. The water will also become increasingly shallow as you move closer to the bank. Blocked on two sides by the bank and the boulder, the eddy water will be pushed out against the faster current and be swept back downstream in the “seam.” These seams come in many sizes and scales. Sometimes the entire river will turn around a point and we call that an “inside seam” of the river.

Execution

The simplified explanation of the technique is to let your fly go as slow as possible without hanging up on bottom, while adding life-like action to your fly, and keeping it in the strike zone for as long as possible.

To fully understand it, let’s walk through the ultimate drift in the theoretical pocket described above.

From a straight across position cast your fly near the bank several feet below the boulder. Finish you cast with a high rod tip (creating a bit of slack) so that you can make a large mend upstream. This will tighten your leader and allow your fly to swim with the current upstream in the eddy water. Keep you eyes glued to that indicator and don’t doubt yourself, don’t be afraid to strike!

As the indicators get pushed out near the seam your indicators will slow down and allow your fly to sink (the water direction is about to change.) Now sweep a large mend down over your indicators and allow a little drag to grab your fly line and speed up your fly. Your fly line should be laying straight down the seam in front of your fly. Your fly will be dragged straight down the feeding lane.

Remember that you want your fly to go as slow as possible, so now you need to slow it down. This is achieved by making a series of “kick mends” all the way down the seam. A “kick mend” is a tight mend upstream that tugs at first and then rolls a small loop right up the fly line, usually only as far as the indicators. This kick mend achieves many things all in one smooth motion. First, the tug twitches the indicators downstream, which both straightens your leader (so you can instantly see or feel the take) and bounces the fly up off the bottom (giving action). Second, the tight loop mend instantly gives slack to the indicators and allows you fly to sink again. Repeat all the way down the seam whenever your fly seems to go too fast. If you wish you can tighten up and allow your fly to swing out at the end of your drift.

Rules of Thumb

1) Always keep you indicators down current of your fly (remember eddy currents can move upstream.)
2) Fish will always face into the current.
3) If your fly leads your indicators you will not see the take.
4) Mending up current will let your fly sink.
5) Mending down will speed up you fly and make it rise up.
6) Approach deeper pockets from slightly above, shallow pockets from below.
7) The colder the water temps, the slower the drift.
8) Wherever you mend your line, if you tug, your fly will follow.



The result of this technique is that your fly follows the depth profile of the pocket, stays in the feeding lane, has controlled life-like darting action, yet drifts at an appropriate speed. Give it a try on your home river from early spring until the high water completely settles. And if the fish are off in the mid-summer dog days try it again. PS- it is also deadly for smallies.

Good luck and keep in touch,

Joe