Brilliantly-colored leaves framed the long, deep, rocky pool I chose this week. My intention was fishing for smallmouth bass. A size-6 bead-head brown woolly bugger was knotted to a 4-foot length of 4X tippet on an intermediate line. A favorite 5-weight delivered my imposter. Long reach casts into the current enabled the fly to achieve depth and swing directly downstream from the rod before darting actions were imparted along the seam (the line seen on the surface created by converging currents of fast and slow water). The long pool surrendered 9 bronzebacks of 9 to 13 inches.
Sometimes All You Need Is a Woolly Bugger . . .
