Zach Matthews
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Matt –
I recall hearing somewhere that Line-X and Rhino-liner have different levels of “stickiness.”
Abe –
The Clinch has its fair share of stocker trout, and theoretically they should hit woolies, but TWRA usually stocks in there at 4″. By the time those fish hit 12″, they have seen an enormous number of olive woolly buggers, mostly fished poorly.
Woollies are fished best like most streamers; on the swing, over a drop-off or through a channel. If you are simply casting them in shallow shoaling water like at Miller Island, you’re not going to do as well. I would go down below the Weir Dam to the very end of the island and wade out on the rock ledges, and cast across and down.
But the truth is, the woolly is not the most productive fly on the Clinch and never will be. You are 100% right to be using little zebra midges in there. If you must fish a streamer, I would throw a Zuddler Minnow. Most of Scott Rogers’ crew’s biggest fish came on that fly, which they called “whitey,” being thrown most likely on sinking or sink-tip lines at rising water, out of boats.
If you really want to use a woolly to catch a fish, my advice would be to go down to the Anderson County jail and cast them across and down in the area upstream where the river cuts through those little rock ledges. Be the only one there, and stay far enough back that the fish can’t see you on top of them.
Zach
I’ve had some PMs and emails, so here’s another analogy.
Say a given shot is metered properly at f/8 and 1/125th.
Now add a polarizing filter with two stops of darkening to the front of the lens.