The ultimate round goby fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to reward all the readers who are still visiting after the NRA post with something useful. if you do not know about it, round gobies invaded the Great Lakes during the late 1990's and are now ubiquitous. They have many negative effects, but are eaten by just about every predator out there, including Atlantic salmon. Everyone eats gobies, and anglers have begun using goby imitations (most states prohibit their use as live bait). Berkeley actually makes a power bait in the size and shape of a goby, and there are a variety of soft plastic baits that imitate them. These are especially popular with smallmouth bass anglers. There are also a variety of fly patterns out there, but I just was not satisfied with any of them. They either swam with the hook down, were very difficult to tie, or just did not look like a goby to me. Now, you know well of my disdain for those who modify a famous pattern with a minute change and name it after themselves, but I decided that would try to create a new goby pattern. Here it is.

 OK we have put a size 4, 6x long Mustad streamer hook in the vise, and started the fly. Hook debarbed, and barbel eyes lashed and glued in place. Note that the eyes are back pretty far. Start with a brown rabbit strip for the tail. Not too long, perhaps the length of the body. The body is a blend of Senyo's laser dubbing and brown Hare's ice. I like both, but you could use any yellow/brown blend, and bling it up with some ice dub for a bit of flash. I palmered an olive grizzly saddle hackle over the body to keep the fine wing material from squishing down in the water- maintains the illusion of bulk without weight. The black spot on underside of the rabbit is a dot colored in with a sharpie. Gobies have a black spot on the dorsal fin and I wanted to imitate it.

 Next, I tied in some olive Finn raccoon on top and bottom for a fine over and under wing, then a few strands of gold flash on each side. Any long and fairly fine fur would work, and any flash material as well. Then a substantial collar using a tan schlappen hackle. This was tied back, then a second collar using a barred wood duck breast feather. You could use mallard, but I chose wood duck because it was sort of tan. An expensive feather but we shoot a lot of them. At this point we have a real mess going. Just make sure that the collar angles back and don't worry about how it looks because it will all be covered with ram's wool.

 The head is the hard part, but there is a trick. First, make a short veil by folding ram's wool around the hook, and tie it down behind the lead eyes. Keep it short. Then split the tying thread with a needle, and insert pieces of brown wool into the loop. Wax will hold it in place until you spin the bobbin to trap the fibers and create a dubbing brush. Wrap it behind the head, and criss-cross over and under the eyes. It may take several tries to get it looking good with no thread showing. Don't over spin the bobbin, and pull back the fibers as you wrap so they do not get trapped. You can vary the length and density of the wool dubbing loop. Easier to do than explain, but you may have to redo it once or twice.

Add more wool if needed until you form a dense wool mass that covers the tie-down area and eyes. Whip finish, then trim it to a classic goby head.

What I like about this one is that it sinks fast, is pretty tough, and it seems to capture the true nature of gobies, which are brown and olive with a yellow sheen. Enough flash to make it stand out, but they are not a shiny pretty fish. The materials capture the profile pretty well, I must say, to the point where I am so expecting a bidding war between Orvis and Umpqua Feather Merchants.

BTW, this fly grew out of a dozen really awful prototypes that were nightmares. One looked like a bluefish had chewed on it, another like it had ingested large quantities of tritium. The marabou tail version looked like a goby with a missing tail, and the deer hair head version was such a pain to get right that you wanted to go over and toilet paper Chris Helm's yard for making you think that you too could tie like he does. Because it is an impressionistic fly, it's official name is the go-again goby, after that famous impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. If you ever get a chance to see his work at the Met in NYC, go. You will be a better person. And the prototype fly will be gifted to the person who can give the correct literary attribution on how Gauguin became known as "that go-again fellow".