Last week on the Androscoggin I hit the Wooly Bugger hatch perfectly. The Wooly Buggers were emerging everywhere -- popping up in midstream, crawling out on the rocks -- and the trout were in a feeding frenzy.

Yeah, right.

Wooly Buggers? What the hell do trout think those things are, anyway? I have never seen anything in nature that looks anything like a Wooly Bugger, and if I did I would be tempted to steer clear. But the other day on the Andro, when Hare's Ears, Pheasant Tails, Princes, and several other patterns drew yawns from the piscine population, the rainbows hammered the Wooly Bugger like it was their last meal. Whether bouncing down a riffle, swinging at the end of a drift, or on the retrieve, the Wooly Bugger caught trout when nothing else would. I'd love to be able to read the minds of the fish that found that fly irresistible.

I've had similar experiences with the Doodlebug, which closely resembles a frayed cigarette filter.

If Freud had been an angler he might well have asked, in exasperation, "What do trout want?"

The answer is often elusive.