Steelheading: Rigging rubber baits

Peter MacPherson
Steelheader Contributor
A few steelhead seasons ago, a brightly colored item stuck between two rocks in knee deep water catching my attention. Pulling up my sleeve I braved the chilly dip and reached down and freed it from the bottom. The item was a piece of foam with four hanks of wool sticking out of it. With a chuckle I slipped it into my vest with the other junk picked up on the banks -- you know, the stuff that the slobbish, uncaring anglers leave behind.
  Anyhow, when I got homeand emptied my "findings" into the garbage, I saved the bizarre item washed it and put it on the window sill. A few days later while gazing out the window, wishing for fishing, my attention focused on that oddball foam, woolly thing. That’s when I had a vision, it was somewhat spiritualistic. I was drawn immediately toward my fishing stuff. With the vision in mind I collected the necessary items.
  Amidst some squinting, the odd finger prick and the sound of scissors snipping an odd "oooops!" was heard. Finally the noise lessened until a "tah-dah" trumpeted echoing through the house.
  No, the answer to "the questions of the universe" were not solved. It was much more significant than that, I had created (with accredited inspiration) a new fishing doo-dad gizmo type thing. It was sort of woolly and made with rubber baits and . . . that’s when it came to me. The name, yes, we shall call these "woolly rubbers."
  And so it came to pass. Of course now that I had created a new lure it was mandatory and compulsory to initiate immediate testing. All of my adult responsibilities were abandoned in order to allow testing.
  With rod/reel and vest in order the river was to be the testing ground. Unfortunately there were several hundreds of tests necessary to form conclusive data. Tests are in fact still going on today and yes maybe even tomorrow.
  To make your own "woolly rubbers" simply take your preferred rubber bait be it a gooey-bob, Jensen egg, or . . . ? Select your favorite wool colors and cut it into 2" pieces, one of each color. You will need only a wisp, lets say 1/8 of a piece of the wool. Using a barbed hook (#1) or better yet, a small crochet needle, insert it through the bait. Hook one end of the piece of wool with the barb and pull it back through the bait so that the wool now runs through the bait and protrudes evenly out of each side. Repeat as desired, making sure you avoid previous wool paths.
  Cut the protruding wool to the desired length, maybe a little, maybe a lot. That’s it, ready to fish! Well almost, you will have to use a needle to thread the "woolly rubber" onto your leader. One thing about using "woolly rubber" eggs is that they don’t slide off your hook like a regular egg and wool tie, instead they sit on the eye of the hook much like a corkie.
  Try using the "woolly rubber" technique on your discarded rubber worm tails, they look quite "shrimpy."
  Oh by the way, testing has concluded and data indicates that they work.

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