Is the Buzzer a good fly for fly fishing?

Is fishing "The Bung" a good way to fly fish?

• I have never used a strike indicator before, however after reading an article on a fly fishing website about fishing "the bung," I really like the idea of suspending flies ...show more

• Answer:

  Yes, it's a great way to fly fish. Out here in the western U.S., we call this set-up a "hopper-dropper." The top fly is a big foamy attractor like a grasshopper pattern, and the dropper is a nymph or scud or what have you. I saw a hopper-dropper rig with a huge hopper or stonefly up top, trailed by Woolly Bugger, trailed by a Zebra Nymph -- the guy claimed to catch fish with it. However, our hopper-dropper might not be an apt comparison to fishing a bung fly, because when you fish a hopper-dropper, you expect hits on either one (or both) of the flies -- the hopper is as likely to be hit as the underneath fly (or flies). A bung, according to my understanding, is a high-visibility fly that has almost no chance of catching fish -- it's just large, flashy, and highly buoyant, used almost solely as a strike indicator for the nymph or a series of nymphs underneath. But using a bung fly is still better than a strike indicator because there IS still some chance that a fish may make a try for the bung -- everyone has seen fish hit strike indicators, so you might as well have something out there with a hook in it, right? I suppose the next evolution of this strategy is to use an ordinary styrofoam strike indicator with a hook embedded in it. Yes, egg patterns, Bunnies, and Zonkers (or any leach pattern) would all do well on stillwater, depending on the season, fish, etc. Woolly Buggers and Scuds, too, especially if you're around vegetation.