Tenkara Pond Trip

[DanMarino]

I'm too lazy to break out the waders and hit the local flows, so I've been visiting a few ponds recently. Yesterday afternoon was pretty nice and I managed to get these tiny bass and a few bluegills to go after my fly on the Tenkara rod.

[Mark]

You did well, Tom.

You're teaching those young bass how to attack their prey so they grow up to hit spinner baits and Senkos!

I visited a pond during yesterday's nice weather and had some panfish action myself with the ever reliable wooly bugger:

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P1060606 (3).jpg

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I also caught some picks including one on an olive wooly bugger which the fish shredded. So, I switched to a brown bugger with a black tail which the above fish liked. Only the fish know what they think a wooly bugger is. They key for us anglers is that they like it. It's fun to occasionally put aside the glitter and bright colors of flies made with artificial materials and go with something traditional made of chenille and marabou and hackle feathers.

This is a great time of year for fly action on ponds with Tenkara or conventional fly gear.

[DanMarino]

Cool report Mark. I need to get some materials to tie up my own buggers. They cast well on the Tenkara rod and resulted in some smallmouth bass, bluegills, and fallfish last summer.

[Mark]

Tom,

A wooly bugger is the first fly I learned to tie. I suspect that's the case for most tyers. It's a good starting fly because it teaches proportion, how to palmer hackle and how to tie off the head. Those are skills needed to tie most flies. But the best thing is that it catches so many species. It was my "go-to" subsurface fly for smallmouth in the upper Potomac during my early days of flyfishing -- olive chenille body, grizzled palmered hackle and black marabou tail.

[DanMarino]

I believe it Mark!. I'm pretty sure I caught most of the fish on olive green or black buggers last year. Do you bother to wrap the body with wire like I see on some YouTube instructional videos?
I also need to purchase some additional foam cylinders to use with that popper jig. I bought the same smaller set that you use.

[Mark]

Tom,

I do not wrap wire to secure the hackle.

See here:

Wooly Bugger .jpg

If you put a wrap of chenille behind the hackle to start and make a tight head with the thread at the eye, the hackle is not going to unwind during use for most species.

The only fish species I routinely catch that destroys the hackle and sometimes the chenille is a pickerel.

This the wooly bugger I mentioned above in this thread that fell victim to a pickerel:

shredded Bugger (2).jpg

That pick was a by-catch. I was targeting bluegills. The pick bit the fly just right to dismantle it. I've caught picks before with buggers and they have not been damaged as severely as the one above.

Actually, I don't use wooly buggers when I'm trying to catch picks. I prefer Bendback Minnows and Crystal Buggers. They're more durable than a wooly bugger when they come into contact with pickerel teeth.

Otherwise, a wooly bugger is a very long-lasting fly for bass, perch, crappies and bluegills.

Note, that if I want to make a wooly bugger sink faster, I will add a bead head or I will wrap lead wire on the hook shank under the chenille. But most of the time, since I am fishing shallow water, I do not add weight my buggers. Unweighted they suspend nicely in the water column when I pause my retrieve. That's when I find that they are most likely to be hit.

Finally -- Order your foam. Top water is very effective throughout May in freshwater.

[DanMarino]

That destroyed bugger is cracking me up! haha