Steelhead Wooly Worms

These Steelhead Wooly Worms are tied on a #7 KoreaSun 1X Short Hook or a #8 Heavy Wire Wet Fly Hook.  Mostly using a Glo-Bug Yarn tail, or red Hackle fibers.  The gold bodied black & Chartreuse has worked well for Salmon and walleye. 

These Wooly Worms were tied with no added weight but heavy on the dressing for bottom bouncing,  they are less likely to foul the bottom or fish.  I have had a number of good days on a few of these patterns.  One is  (Body, Hackle, Tail description),  the Gold, Black, Chartreuse fly.  This fly came to me through my first fishing buddy, Tom Peterson of Wisconsin.  A Wisconsin guide named Bess had written it up in and article titled Egging on Steelhead circa 1980.  Tom beat everyone on a popular spot one day but more importantly he beat me 3 to 0, with a short #6 Gold Grizzly  Chartreuse.  The black hackle version (Gold, Black, Chartreuse) went on to catch catch for me different fish species in a number of different  situations.  

This stubby type of fly is heavily dressed with a generous palmered hackle ususally tied slanting forward for more action.   They will take fish on the swing surprisingly well.  For me it has always been a surprise if a Steelhead or a Chinook rises up more than a foot to take a swimming fly.  If you bottom bounce this Gold Black Chartreuse fly in the face of spawning Walleye they are likely to eat it. 

The standard Brown Grizzly Wooly Worm has worked well for me on Summer Ru Steelhead and early fall Pacific Salmon when the water is warm.