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![]() Booby Flies Booby flies are one of the strangest looking but most productive flies you can use in still or slow moving waters. There are no prizes for guessing how the fly got its name, once you see the fly, and also no prizes for those who think that these flies are sometimes called "Dolly Partons". The combination of its bobbing action as the foam beads of the head struggle to lift the fly, and the seductive wriggle of the marabou tail often proves irresistible to trout. But it is one of the most misunderstood flies being used in New Zealand today. First a bit of history. The first references I can find about Booby flies is from English magazines published about 25 years ago. Back then they were called Booby nymphs, and you still see this fly called Booby nymph in today’s U.K. magazines. The name ‘Booby nymph’ reveals the flies origins. English lake fishers observed that many emerging insects used a bubble of air to move from the lake bed and weeds to the surface. This bubble of air held the insect in the surface film while it changed from its nymphal form into a flying insect. Nymphs with ‘bubbles’ of foam attached to the head became a proven fish taker. These nymphs were used with a floating line. Then someone added some marabou to the tail to simulate the waving legs and wings as the nymph emerged. This addition of ‘life’ to the Booby nymph increased catch rates significantly. We have to suppose that the jump from fishing the Booby nymph on the surface to fishing it under the surface was as a result of observation. Soon bigger boobies were being tied, this time to imitate fish fry, and fished on fast sinking lines. The results were dramatic. Dramatic enough to persuade many lake owners in the U.K. to ban the fly. In some lakes this ban still applies. I first came across Booby flies fishing alongside an Englishman on a beach at Taupo about eight or nine years ago. His success rate was extraordinary. He gave me a couple of the flies which I promptly filed away in my fly box and forgot about. Forgot until I read about three months later an in-depth article on the Booby fly in a U.K. magazine. I tried the Booby at a river mouth at Taupo and caught trout alongside the rip, when no one else using the traditional methods was getting a touch. There were a couple of guides on the rip that evening and they were quick to notice the efficacy of the Booby fly and they swooped on my fly box. Suddenly the Booby began to pop up in Taupo, Rotorua lakes and further afield. A couple of articles in fishing magazines, and the Booby was suddenly flavour of the month. My guess is that many anglers have tried the fly once or twice and then given it away. I still watch in some amazement groups of anglers standing in the rip swinging standard lures catching no fish. When in plain sight one or two anglers using Booby flies off to the side of the rip are catching fish. My belief, based on observation and discussion, is that the anglers who give up on the Booby do so because they do not fish the fly correctly. Today’s Booby Today’s basic Booby flies are all built around the same principle. A pair of eyes made of some kind of plastic foam at the head of the hook, some chenille wound round the shank of the hook to form a body, and a big tuft of marabou to form a tail. This basic fly has a myriad of derivations and colour combinations, each of which seems to work at some time or other. The Booby fly, and there are no prizes for guessing how it got its name, looks very strange in the fly box. A pair of round boobies at the head, a big feather duster of a tail. It is the view of the fly when it is dry that seems to put people off. But wet the fly and look at it again. The overall shape is a great imitation of smelt. Put it in the water, and the tail moves just like the sinewy movements of a fish. It is no wonder trout hit the thing so hard. Basic fishing method The basic method of fishing the Booby is very simple. Use a fast sinking line, I find a shooting head best, no more than 500 cm of leader to the Booby and cast it out. Give the line plenty of time to sink and pull the fly down to the bottom. Even in only 2 or 3 metres of water this can take 30 seconds or more. If there is any current at all it will take longer. Once the fly has settled retrieve the fly in short, 10 to 20 cm tugs, pausing between each tug. The pause is important, the fly must be allowed to float back up, because tugging on the line pulls it down. That pretty much is that, except for the following advice. If you are trying a Booby for the first time, and you take no notice of anything else in this article, follow this piece of advice. Before you make your first cast with the Booby throw the fly out into the water where you can see it. Allow the line to pull it under, and then watch the movement of the fly as you tug the line. Only by watching the movement of the fly as you tug will you learn how to work the fly. Remember in still water you have to provide the movement to the fly to make it ‘live’. The subtleties of the movement you provide can add and enhance the ‘life’ of the lure. The basic Booby method works well in most situations but there are many variations that can be used. In summer on still days, especially if there are fish working on the surface try using a very long leader, at least the depth of the water and then a bit. This method really requires that you can see the fly. Cast out and allow the line time to sink. Then tug on the line, you may need to pull about 20 cm, then pause. The Booby will sink under the surface then bob back to the surface and send out little ripples. The takes of trout when using this method resemble kingis whacking poppers. Exciting stuff. If there is some current where you are fishing, lengthen the leader, this will allow the fly to ‘swing’ as well as bob. But remember that it is probably better for the leader to be too short than too long. Tying a Booby is not difficult. The Head: Always tie the head on first. This has two advantages. It allows you to judge the body length much more easily, but more importantly it allows the head to sit down and around the hook shaft. This gives the lure a much more natural profile. The usual method is to use polystyrene balls. These can be obtained from plastic suppliers as bean bag fillers. Take a piece of panty hose or clear pliable plastic about 10 cm square, not Gladwrap or similar it stretches too much, place the two balls in the centre and pull the ends in to tightly enclose the balls. Tie down the collected ends of the plastic or panty hose to the shaft and trim, then bind down the balls by winding in a figure eight pattern between the balls, then take the thread to the rear of the hook shaft. There is a better method of forming the head. There are a number of problems associated with using styrene balls. Firstly they are not durable, one fish and the balls can often be crushed and torn. Secondly I have yet to find a head cement or glue that does not dissolve the balls. Thirdly, panty hose and plastic tears easily and the balls pop out when casting. If you can obtain some Ethafoam or Plastizote, same product, different brand names, grab it. I found some sheets about one inch thick in yellow, white and black. A plug cutter made out of sharpened sections of an old car aerial forms one inch long cylinders of various diameters. Lay the cylinder across the hook shaft and tie down by figure eight binding. I usually leave it at that but some go the drama of trimming around the ends of the cylinders to form a more rounded shape. I have found no difference in fish catching. Dipping a matchstick in black head cement and gently dropping a blob onto the ends of the cylinders forms ‘eyes’. Head Variation Using Ethafoam or Plastizote cylinders allows you tie a Booby head variation. First tie on the cylinder and take the thread back down the shaft about .5 cm. Take the ends of the Ethafoam and pull them back towards the tail. As you pull the head back gradually pinch in with the finger nails until the ends meet the hook shaft. Then still holding the head ends tightly pinched push the ends slightly back towards the hook eye. This bulges the sides of the foam. Take the thread in the other hand and tightly bind down the foam hard up against the pinched finger nails. This head is useful to form a very lifelike profile, or to form a smaller head where you are fishing in any current or need a faster retrieve. Standard heads tend to spin in a current or when retrieved quickly. Tie in the tail. Take a good clump of marabou, and this is one case in fly tying, where more is better than less, and tie onto the shaft. The marabou should be at least a hook length and a half off the bend of the hook. A good tip when handling marabou tufts is to wet the thumb and forefinger and roll the end of the marabou between them. This makes it much easier to tie in the marabou. Tie in a bit of tail flash. A piece or two of pearlescent flashabou tied on top of the tail adds some extra attraction. Form the Body The body is formed with chenille using two methods. When using standard chenille first tie in tinsel, then chenille. Wind on the chenille to form a body tie off, and then wind on the tinsel to form the rib. Tie off. Otherwise use one of the sparkle chenille and do not tie in a rib. In both cases it is important that the body is kept slim. The best way to asses whether the body is slim enough is to wet the fly and look at it in profile. Night Boobies Method one: Tie as above using black or dark olive marabou. Use aurora luminescent skirt, as the body. Method two: Tie a Booby using black or dark olive marabou as a tail, black, red or olive chenille as a body. Then using luminescent paint dab on ‘eyes’ on the boobies. Booby Variants The list of variant ties for boobies could fill quite a few articles. The most common ones are as follows. Viva Booby: Then tie a Booby using black marabou tail. Then tie in and wind on two turns of chartreuse chenille, completing the body with a dubbing made of black marabou. Use a tuft of black marabou tied in behind the boobies to form a wing. Try this fly in bright sunlight. Yes I know about dark fly theories but this pattern works very well during the day. Cat’s Whisky Booby: Use a white marabou tail, lime green chenille, or chartreuse sparkle chenille body, and a tuft of white marabou tied in behind the head as a wing. Booby Bugger: Tie a Booby as usual to the tail. But before starting tying in the body tie in a barred hackle by the tip at the tail. Form the body of chenille then wind the hackle forward to the head and tie off, in woolly bugger fashion. Booby Colours: The list of colours available to the Booby tier is just about as wide as all the colours in the spectrum. Probably the most popular and successful colour combination is a white tail, chartreuse chenille or sparkle chenille body. Darker colours using olive tails work well in coloured water or dusk and dark. Recently I have been using a peach tail and body to great effect. A yellowtail, yellow body and olive wing has caught plenty of fish. But as the photo shows the colour range is endless. Hook size and shape: Use a long shank down eye, or straight eye hook. The most common size is probably a size 6 hook but I regularly use size eight and ten hooks. Barbs: One of the first things you notice when using Booby flies is how often fish are very deeply hooked. If you release fish, it is a wise move to de-barb the hooks. Booby Ethics: Booby flies have copped a lot of negative flack, especially about some anglers using the fly on a ‘heave and leave’ basis. That is simply casting out the fly and leaving it until some fish comes along and gobbles it. At Lake Otamangakau I once saw a guy cast out a Booby then walk back up the bank stripping line behind him till he reached a seat and sat down to wait. This made me angry. Then I reflected that this guy was no fly fisherman. But to ban a fly that is effective for the many who fish it as fly fishermen, for the sake of the very few who fish it as ‘bait fishermen’ seems to be a bit like using a sledge hammer to drive a tack. Besides I have observed some ‘anglers’ using a couple of nymphs under a giant indicator on a ‘heave and leave’ basis. Any one who believes Booby flies should be banned because they float underwater will I trust never use weighted flies or nymphs for the same fractured logic in reverse. To decry a fly because it is effective when fished as a fly seems to strike at the very core of the inventiveness that has characterised the fly tiers art since it began. One part of the art of catching trout on the fly is to select a fly that will induce a trout to bite it. The next and perhaps most important part is to place the fly where the fish are feeding. This is perhaps what makes the Booby so effective. Designing and using a fly that floats just off the bottom is a tactic equally as valid as using a fly weighted to fish right on the bottom. |
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