A stillwater technique — fast-stripping brightly colored "blob" flies — is hammering stillwater trout in competitions in Britain, and some fly fishermen aren’t very happy about it:
The highly effective, ball-shaped blobs, made from various fibres, promote an aggressive, chasing reaction from trout when pulled quickly through the water. Unlike traditional flies, such as "nymphs" or "daddy-longlegs", they do not resemble a living insect.
Purists argue that blobs, which are permitted in major contests, give an unfair advantage over conventional methods and make trout fishing too easy. England fly-fishing champion Chris Ogborne was so opposed to them that he left the England team, and says he has received hundreds of letters of support.
Russell Hill, editor of Trout Fisherman magazine, said: "The blob craze has made trout fishing very easy. They are absolutely caning fish and winning every match. Gone are the days when you hear of a man winning a match with a dry fly or a nymph, because the younger anglers are going to these reservoirs and ripping blobs back at breakneck speed and catching their eight-fish limit in half an hour. There’s a massive debate going on."
The story includes a video where a blob-fishing angler handily outfishes someone throwing traditional nymphs.
Keep in mind a lot of English stillwater fisheries are heavily stocked; I wonder if this method would prove so effective over wild fish.
This one’s ripe for a little discussion. The floor is yours, Undergrounders.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
After watching that video, I don’t think much of their controversy. First, it seems the traditionalists use the “blob” to attract fish to their wet offerings, so they get credit no doubt for participating in the degradation of their purism. (Crikey, the trout keep hitting my bobber/lightstick/teaser/blob/swivel! Maybe I’ll put a hook in it!)
Second, those guys don’t fight big fish on light tippets very well. The nymph guy got flat beat on one fish, and the other guy hooked up two at once and probably got split because he lost them both.
Also, they cast like noobs, though that may be just open-looping because they’re both fishing two-fly rigs. I’m watching four or five false casts each. Though the jumping fish were pretty far off, so they were evidently getting some distance.
And what’s so all-fired traditional about fishing reservoir trout? I love it–big fish and willing, of course–but it seems a tad removed from fishing the Tweed on the beat of the Marquis of Cantwell. Or should I say a tad yobbish.
Finally, were those rainbows? Could have been pale lake brownies, but they looked like rainbows to me, which would make them plants from (shudder!) North America, right? Five-nil for modern yobbistry.
And a gratuitous snicker at the dead fish, probably Priested humanely, but still highly dead. We all get to establish our notions of traditional vs. modern, I guess.
Dave ice9(Quote)
so TC, next time you go up to one of your high country lakes, give her a shot…..and i agree that the blob is good for beginners and high muddy water. i use blob like fies steelheading in off color water. pretty effective on the dead drift. my blobs a glo bug yarn make. looks like the englanders use sparkle yarn. though when steam fishing the closest thing to a blob i use is a glo bug. keep it real on the river!!! isaac roman(Quote)
My first steelhead on a fly was a blobbish fly I tied with crochet yarn. I thought I was tying an egg pattern, but it came out the size of a golf ball and had legs. Still, it hooked a nice steelhead. So, maybe there is some value in fishing this way! I might have to give it a shot! oatka(Quote)
Are you kidding? They are making an issue out of this? Who cares what you tie on a hook, if it catches fish, it catches fish. Are they just pissed because they didn’t think to use it first? I’m surprised they’re even “permitted” to use wet flies and nymphs. What ever happened to trying to ban subsurface flies in the 19th century because they were so successful and tools of the devil? Looks like that failed. Talk about snobbery. The whole argument about it not being sporting is asinine. You’re still fly fishing when using a blob. Nobody’s forcing the fish to take the fly. This isn’t a whole lot different than fishing a yarn fly or any other attractor pattern IMO. They can keep that attitude over there in the UK. As if fly fishing wasn’t already stereotyped as being snooty and snobbish, these clowns go and make an issue of it, perpetuating the stereotype.
I don’t need to be shamed into thinking that there is a right and wrong way to fish. I’ll go back to the underground and fly fish for roughfish with nymphs. That’ll make some stomachs turn overseas. Jean-Paul Lipton(Quote)
Though I have been a flyfishing-only devotee (well, as far as trout are concerned) for near twenty years, I was raised dragging mepps/kammloop spoons/daredevils/roostertails/etc… for years as a young fisherman. I can tell you almost anyone can provke a predatory strike with the right lure/”blob”. I started flyfishing precisely because I wanted a greater challenge, a finer art. It’s evolutionary. Besides doen’t competition breed this type of “wahtever works” mentality? Let’s decry competitive flyfishing in the first place. My 2 cents woth. James(Quote)
I think the “whatever works” mentality is a complete 180 from competitive fishing. Competitive fishing begets these asinine rules whereas “you can fish these flies in this manner, only until I say otherwise”. Look at the intricate rules set in place for auto racing. They say it’s all in order to provide an even playing field, where drivers, or in this case, anglers are compared based on their skill and not their tackle. If you were angling for pure enjoyment and not sport, you wouldn’t necessarily limit yourself in this manner.
I also enjoy fly fishing because of the challenge, but I think it’s ludicrous to limit yourself to fishing only certain patterns. Open the door and experiment. Someone had to do the sleuthing to discover that those blob flies were exceptionally effective. Why not be that guy? Why not pursue something other than trout. I whole whole-heartedly agree that we should decry competitive angling. But as long as man lives, someone will need to one-up the next guy and so the competition begins. It must be a deep evolutionary response. Jean-Paul Lipton(Quote)
It is true that the blob is a very effective fly, but to be banned? I’m not sure. At the end of day we just want to catch fish.
I agree with Jean-Paul if we just want to fish for enjoyment these flies are fine, but for skill perhaps not. Coarse Fishing UK Blog(Quote)
Anytime you add competition to what amounts to a pleasurable activity, you’re bound to stumble into things like this.
First, competition is all about what works, and given the restraints we all impose on ourself (a quarter stick of dynamite “fishes” better than any fly rod), you have to wonder how any technique could be “too effective.”
We all fly fish for our own reasons. I don’t do much heavy indicator nymphing because I don’t enjoy it much, though I’m smart enough not to go to war against those who do.
In this case, of course, we’re talking about competitions taking place on reservoirs that are usually heavily stocked. In fact, catch & release is often frowned on in many stocked UK waters because managers fear it will make the fish too smart.
With that as a backdrop, it’s hard to imagine there’s much purity left, and that anyone could define “fly fishing competition” as “fly fishing competition where only earth-toned flies imitating insects are to be used.” Tom Chandler(Quote)
When you receive one phone call about the latest controversy surrounding the blob fly, you smile. When you receive two phone calls regarding the latest controversy about the blob fly, you smile and shake your head. When you receive three phone calls, well, it just becomes annoying.
When England won the world fly fishing championship on Rutland water way back in 1987, I believe their most successful fly on Rutland was Brain Leadbetter’s Peach Doll, hardly the most imitative of fly patterns.
Indeed, I spent quite a bit of time corresponding with Brian Leadbetter just trying to establish the exact colour match for the Peach doll.
In 1990-91, I purchased a copy of “Success with Trout” by Martin Cairncross, John Dawson and Chris Ogborne. In that book the writers suggested there was so much mystique and baloney associated with getting the correct shade of wool for the Peach doll, and that the main reason for the Peach dolls success was overlooked: its effectiveness as a pure visual attractor, they then stated that this fly is best tied with the hottest, most fluorescent and hideously striking orange available. They also stated that it didn’t matter whether they body was tied using wool, chenille or whatever. The bright body was the key to the fly’s success. Let me repeat that, “THE BRIGHT BODY WAS THE KEY TO THE FLIES SUCCESS.”
The fly which the authors advocated as a replacement for the Peach Doll, is called “The Vindaloo.” They went on to advise the reader: if you’ve had no response after quarter of an hour, then you should remove this fly. No different to the blob then.
It’s July 2008 and progress is progress. So many technical advancements have been made since those red letter days when England once ruled supreme in the small bubble of competitive fly fishing. The only difference between the blob fly and those mentioned above is the material used in the fly’s construction; just another synthetic material which lends itself to seriously easy fly construction.
To those anglers and non anglers outside the bubble, competitive fly fishing is perceived as a pleasant and relaxing day out, afloat in a boat, delicately casting bits of fur and feather which represent the trout’s natural diet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Competitive fly fishing is, in my opinion, one of the most physically and mentally draining of any sport on God’s own.
Take any Olympic athlete, have them practice for two days prior to a match, and then fish the match over another two days, I guarantee they’ll be in bed for a week afterwards. It is, as I’ve said, exhausting.
Yobs with blobs, I think not. Sure things can get a bit tight during a match, when all the boats are drifting the same area, words will be exchanged; a bit like track athletes jostling for position, but I’ve yet to see “boat rage.” What’s said on the water stay’s on the water. I’ve yet to see a competition angler sin binned, Red-carded or hear of a tunnel punch-up after the match.
Indeed, only last year, when driving home from a match on Rutland Water the clutch cable on my car snapped, and I was left stranded in the middle of nowhere. The battery on my mobile was dead, it was 9 pm, and I was in trouble. A group of competition anglers upon recognizing me pulled up and handed me a mobile phone so I could contact my breakdown service. Those anglers waited by the roadside with me until the breakdown service arrived. The breakdown service arrived at midnight. During that three hour waiting period another competition angler stopped and offered to take my fishing tackle to a friend’s house nearby, just in case my car was laid-up on the grass verge overnight. I took up his offer with thanks.
Indeed, a great number of anglers stopped and asked if they could be of assistance.
Not a yob amongst them.
Bob Church got it spot on when he said, “It’s no good being able to fish more natural patterns if there’s no hatch for the angler to match! And lures often provide the most reliable alternative.”
Bob Church is the “singularity” of our sport.
We have fashions and trends in every sport, only last week during Wimbledon, John McEnroe mentioned just how much the synthetic material technical advancements had changed the game of tennis, and what did we see, the best Men’s Wimbledon singles final ever.
Fly fishing, like tennis, has seen many changes. We’ve progressed from using split cane rods to high modulus carbon fibre or graphite rods, lighter and larger capacity reels, from silk lines to polymer fly-lines which are designed to sink at exacting speeds, and the greatest improvement, the invention of fluorocarbon leader material which has almost the same refractory index as water, around .09 making it almost invisible.
As always, the most important piece of equipment in the fly fisher’s armoury, coupled with the retrieve style, are the flies which he or she has on the end of the now almost invisible leader. When I purchase a new rod or reel I have a plethora of tackle to choose from, but it’s down to my personal choice. Fly choice, and the right to choose which fly I wish to fish under certain conditions, again is my personal choice.
The fly in fashion just happens to be the blob, everyone’s wearing it, but like all other fashions, they come and go. The viva, soldier palmer and muddler minnow, will I’ve no doubt come back into fashion.
You cannot stop the crowd booing and jeering Ryder cup style, but I’ll make a deal with them… The deal is: when I hear of an angler having been suffocated by a hatch of peach dolls or vindaloos, I’ll stop fishing the blob. Paul McLinden(Quote)
Now there’s a comment that has “commitment” written all over it. Good show!
Attractor flies have always been with us, and I would be hard-pressed to draw the purist-friendly line between a Royal Wulff, an egg pattern, my beloved Beetle Bug, and the “blob” flies currently earning noteriety in England (where the stillwater angling seems a little ahead of ours).
Fly fishing is a sport of choices after all, and the only folks I can’t understand are those who turn it into something dark and grim, as if the act of casting a fly rod was akin to filing our taxes. Tom Chandler(Quote)
We would like to submit our request to you to be supplying you with fly fishing of your own selection.We are experienced in all types including:dries, nymphs, streamers,salmons, salt waters,pikes and bass bugs.
Thank you Edgar G Kevogo(Quote)