best streamer tactics

[123chris]

What is the correct way to fish a wooly bugger in rivers like the hooch where there is no real fast current. And also free stone streames like smith creek or chatooga river.

[jeffg]

123Chris
Kinda all depends. Last Sat on Smith's I dead drifted a black bugger and did rather well. Not as well as when I was fishing a Prince Nymph though....

But I usually dead drift. Cast upstream or at a 45 degree angle and keep the rod cocked at an agle to the stream (allows for faster hook set)...keep an eye on the fly line and if it moves, twitches, stops, or you feel that 6th sense, just snap the wrist up...

Others prefer to put a ton of action into their buggers. Do this by twitching the tip of the rod while your stripping. Or sometimes it is good to just let the ly sit in the current, do not strip line, and just let the bugger twitch in one spot (this works well in the rapids in Arkansas).

One the Hootch, I prefer to make a nice cast and then do about 6-10" strips of the bugger through the pools...

Best way is to experiment with every method. Some days they prefer dead drift, other times want action,etc....

In my years I have found, that when the water is rising and getting a little discolored I dead drift. IN pocket waters in small streams I keep the rod high and twitch the fly thru the pockets. In slow water I let the fly sink (or use sinking line) and strip the fly in..at night I strip line....
Thats my $0.02