On the Fly

The Most Important Piece of Fly Fishing Gear You Can Buy!

It can be quite daunting for new fly fishers as to how much there is to learn and how much there seems to be to buy. Well of course you need the fly rod, reel and line, a tapered leader and some flies. But what is the next most important item you should get? Perhaps buy one of those cool vests or big hats? No, I will suggest that the next (and possibly most important) piece of gear should be waders.

What? Waders! Why not fly boxes or hemostats? Well, some needle nose pliers can be used to remove hooks (the ones that don’t just slip out nicely) and you can put the handful of flies you have in a film canister or just poke them into your hat for now. Waders can save you much grief and I think should be owned by all serious it can be quite daunting anglers.

As a fly caster you would be surprised how much more fun, and successful, it can be to cast when you wade out even a few feet (and what a world of difference a few yards can make). Without waders you can soon see how futile it is to fly fish from shore with your fly spending more time in the jack pines behind you than in the water in front of you.

Most rivers and some lakes have a shallow ledge near the shore. I know I have surprised many a shore fisher by wading knee deep well past their casting range. The main reason for wading is to get some room behind you for your back casts. And even if you can’t get out particularly far you can then cast to your left and right, and all points in between thereby covering a fair amount of water (called fan casting). Then you can move a little along the shore to your left or right and repeat. In fly fishing we are more likely to be stalking our fish quarry than sitting and waiting for the fish to find us.

Waders come in a few variations of styles and of materials.

Styles

There are three styles of wader - the hip wader (attaches to your belt at the hip but only covers you to the inseam); the short top or waist wader (like the name implies just comes up to your waist) and the chest wader (which attaches at the shoulders but covers up to your lower rib cage).

Waders also come with two more variations; boot foot or stocking foot. And as it would seem the boot foot comes with the boot attached and the stocking foot does not, so you then need to get boots to go with them. The boots on boot foot waders tend to have a rubber tread while the separate wading boots can have that kind of tread but usually have felt soles.

Felt soles are great for gripping wet moss covered rocks on stream and lake beds but are not great on mud or wet grass during the hike to the water. There are also boots with a combination of felt and cleat soles or you can use regular hiking boots but buy them one or two sizes larger as that is needed to fit over your wader’s stocking feet.

Materials

There have been a lot of materials used in the construction of waders (some of us can remember those rubber lined non-insulated babies - brrrrrr) Today we can break waders into three materials rubber, neoprene and the newer so called “breathable” waders.

Rubber waders have been around the longest and are the least expensive. You can get a pair of un-insulated boot foot hip waders for $50-$75 dollars and away you go wading and casting. Neoprene is the material used in scuba suits. Its main feature for waders is that they are warmer than rubber and are lighter. They come in various thicknesses and provide a corresponding level of insulation. The breathable waders are supposed to keep water out but also let the sweat escape. A main draw back of the neoprene is that beyond the cold weather they are too warm and so you get clammy inside them on hot days.

If I was to advise someone as to which of the above options to seek out, I would say the easiest and cheapest. I will suggest the rubber boot foot hip waders. They are inexpensive; any fishing store, or any department store that has a fishing section, will have them; they are reasonably durable. If you ever see fit to upgrade them they are always good to have kicking around as spares for you or others. Also hip waders of any sort have the added advantage of allowing you to drive with them on. This is very handy if you are moving from spot to spot. That is why my neoprene stocking foot hip waders get the most use from me. That and the fact that they are very cool in the summer heat – as opposed to chest waders.

It also behooves me to mention that with the acquisition of chest wader wear there seems to come the need to wade that deep (the old “if I can do a thing I should do that thing”) and if the water is that deep you should be fishing to it not fishing in it.

As a basic rule one should not wade deeper than their center of gravity (particularly in current). Lots of people think “I can swim so I am okay” but for the heck of it put on all your fly gear and jump in a pool to see how easy it is. Even if you can swim you could go under and drown or, at the very least, lose your fly rod. There are very few fish worth losing your fly rod or tackle over and there is no fish in the world worth risking your life.

Another accessory to your wading is the wading staff. While you can find retractable versions in the hiking and fly fishing realm, you don’t need to buy one. I have seen people just pick up a stout branch and use it. But if you don’t want to rely on the luck of finding one every time you go fishing you can improvise before hand. I have seen them made out of broom handles and ski poles (I prefer a bamboo ski pole as they make way less noise when banged against a rock) So with all this in mind, if you don’t want to get your feet wet but you do want to keep your flies out of the trees and catch some fish, then get yourself some waders.

Wooly Bugger Variations

Last time we talked a bit about not reaching for the wooly bugger every time you go fly fishing. This time we can talk about the variations on the wooly bugger.

First off the original wooly bugger, tied so many years ago, has really fallen into disuse. Sure, you can find it for sale in a fly shop, it is taught at most fly tying classes or in a fly fishers box but basically we don’t use it. Now we don’t stray too far folks so don’t you worry. The basic wooly bugger is; black chenille body, black marabou tail and black hackle ‘palmered’ up the body. Since it has only 3 ingredients it is hard to not call all its variations wooly buggers as well.

The first addition to the basic black wooly bugger is some copper wire counter wound over the hackle. It gives it a ribbed look and also makes it more durable.

Adding weight in the form of bead heads, cone heads, dumb bell eyes and bead chain eyes is the next most likely addition. It moves the wooly bugger from being a leech pattern to more of a bait fish pattern, that and making the tail shorter. Now, if you have ever seen the tying supply wall in any fly shop or department you know that these three materials (marabou, chenille and saddle hackle) come in all the colours of the rainbow (and a few that aren’t in any rainbow I have ever seen) so there is a lot of variation right there.

You do not have to have all three elements the same colour. A very common touch is to have the chenille in one colour and the hackle and marabou in another contrasting colour. Another variation, used for steelhead and salmon fishing, is to tie a black wooly bugger but use pink, orange or red chenille just near the hook eye. This “Egg Sucking Leech” pattern can also be done with a similarly coloured bead head. You can add rubber legs, tinsel, flash-a-bou, or weed guards for even more versatility.

You can also add by subtraction. Leave off the tail and replace it with a red tag of buck tail or wool and you have the wooly bugger’s predecessor; the Wooly Worm. If you leave out the hackle and shorten the tail you have a very simple nymph pattern when done in smaller sizes and if done in olive with dark mono eyes, you have a decent damsel fly.

As stated the wooly bugger is just 3 materials - there is always some genius in simplicity. I hope these variations will help and lead you to some of your own.