Sight Bobs & Egg Flies

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Ron Clay

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There seems to be a growing number of "fly fisher" using the above methods of catching trout, especially in small still waters. You can spot the sight bob devotees easy. They hog the up wind side of the lake and sit there watchomg their "floats" all looking like garden gnomes. The art of casting and imitative fly fishing doesn't exist amongst this crowd. I fact some of them put the rod in a rest and wait for the reel to scream. Some of them actually flavour the egg flies and hair rig them.

But, Is it really fly fishing?

What do you think?
 
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Rob Brownfield

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Ahhh Ron, provocative as ever :eek:)
As I am sure u are aware, the strike indicator/bob was *invented* for river nymphing when using heavily weighted flies in rough and turbulent runs. As the tip of the line is impossible to watch in these circumstances, a sight bob is indeed needed to spot takes. A secondary benefit is that the nymphs can be suspended above the stream bed at a pre detirmined depth.
If you have ever had the pleasure to watch Polish trout and Grayling anglers in action, you will have seen the great skill that this method commands.

HOWEVER, like all good things, people take the idea and adapt it for there own use. Now, in my own opinion, for what it is worth, using an egg fly and indicator, and sitting on the bank is not fly fishing, but it is a legitimate method!! (unless banned) Some anglers would class lure fishing as not being Fly fishing...others that only upstream dry fly fishing is the "true" goal.

I guess I use a strike indicator when using a team of buzzers, in the form of a large bushy Shipmans, a Daddy Long Legs or similar on the top dropper. I cast across the wind and let it drift. Am I in the wrong? This is a method mentiond by Bob Church, Steve Parton etc in the 60's and even the great Arthur (i think) Cove did this. Thats 40 years without a complaint.

I think the problem lies with the interpritation of a method, not its actual use. What do u think?
 
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Ron Clay

Guest
What gets me are those who sit all day in one spot on a folding chair watching their sight bobs. They don't cast as such but lob out the whole thing and then allow the wind to carry it out. As with all very static fly methods eg: Boobies, the trout often swallow the fly. Fine if you are going to eat the fish but I've actually seen a guy using a coarse fishing disgorger to get the fly out of it's throat prior to putting it back.
Sight bob, egg fly and stactic booby fishing attracts those anglers who are too ignorant and lazy to learn how to fly fish properly. Strike indicators on streams are fine - no problem with that. But there's a world of difference between that and sitting watching a sight bob with up to three favoured egg flies hanging on the end - Hair rigged!!
 
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Rob Brownfield

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Ron, i think most waters have a rule about sitting whilst fishing, so they will be breaking the rules anyway!
I know where you are comming from though!

I guess the same arguement goes for 3 rods and a bolt rig!!! Its not really fishing, is it...but we all do it..!
 
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Bob Jones

Guest
Ban the bloody things, if i had my way,hoW can u call yourself a fly fisherman if you haveto go to these extreams to catch a fish,where's the art? where's the knowledge? where in the solar system do they come from???sad buggers is what they are and if you can't fly fish in a proper manner and show some dignity for the sport,and the prey you're after, TAKE UP BLOODY KNITTING!
 
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Martin Wright

Guest
I don't get cross when I see people fishing like this - I just feel sorry for them because they're missing out on what fly fishing is all about.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

Guest
And in today's world, this subject needs further comment.

A very well known fly fisherman and supplier of fly fishing tackle told me a while ago that fly fishing in England is a dying art. The reason for this is that along with lure fishing and float fishing on rivers, fly fishing requires a modicum of skill to achieve success. Such skill is something the young anglers, and the newcomers to the game are NOT prepared to learn. They want instant success, they want it now!

Fly fishing can take years to learn, but there are a few expedients where even the unskilled can achieve some sort of success and that is fishing the sightbob (or "bung" as it is called today) downwind, or chucking out a booby, putting the rod in a rest and waiting for the fish to hook itself.

But is it really angling?
 
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trev (100M bronze)

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why do they bother to sit and watch a sight bob ? surely it would be easier to put the fly rod onto a 'Bob Church' alarm and sit in a tweed pattern one man shelter.
 
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Alan Tyler

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Welcome to the forum, Bob Jones; nice, evenly-balanced first posting there - you'll fit right in!

A sitting down ban is hardly going to attract fly-fishing's target demographic group, is it?

Do the egg-legering brigade ever catch anything?

Do they get limits often enough to force up ticket prices?

Do they buy the right tickets?

Are they typically rickety old float-fishers having a nice day out in the sun, or fit young fishmongers who ought to be keel-hauled?

Are they, in short, cheating anyone but themselves, and are they doing any harm?

(Obviously the disgorger merchant needs educating - should the commercial fisheries' trade club consider a "conversion course" DVD to be given out/ sold at cost to new customers?).

Fine ol' can of worms you've opened there, Ron!
 
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Andy Blakely

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Whilst I agree in the main with what is being said here (not with the ban the things I don`t agree with posts though), there is perhaps an aspect that has been overlooked in the haste to villify sight bobs and boobies. One of the large stillwaters I fish has a few older anglers fishing on it. Are we saying then that these guys who are perhaps not too steady on thier feet anymore can`t have a seat ? Older anglers perhaps aren`t up to constant casting and retrieving for a full day, so the more static method suits them. A sight bob may be kinder on the eyes than watching the end of the fly line whilst nymphing. I don`t want to make excuses for lazy anglers or methods which if abused take away from the spirit of the sport. Education is the way forward here. But perhaps we should think twice before decrying perfectly legal angling methods enjoyed by others, there are pleanty of divisions within angling as it is. After all would you like to be told you can`t fish any more because others don`t like how you do it ?

All the best and good fishing,

Andy.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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Whoa steady on, I have nothing against sitting on a little seat, in fact I have one and use it a hell of a lot whilst fly fishing around my local res.

And I am one of those old farts, yet at the age of 66, I can still chuck a fly line 30 yards, and whilst sitting down too. ButI see too many anglers much younger than me, and more affluent too, judging by the vehicles they drive, who sit there watching a bung fished down wind with a team of buzzers or Daiwl Bachs under it.

Why don't they learn how to cast properly? They can easily afford to do so; most pros only charge £30 an hour and that is a hell of a lot less than a golf pro.

Anyone taking up fly fishing should have a lesson or two with a pro. Truly, it will be the best money they have ever spent.
 
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Alan Tyler

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If they are enjoying themselves, or believe themselves to be enjoying themselves, and are paying their way (so helping to keep the fishery going), where's the harm in it?

If they get bored, they'll try to find out about the finer points of the game; if they don't, does it matter?

Lots of folk enjoy walking in valleys, admiring the mountains above. Must they be prodded unwilling to the summits by compulsive mountaineers? And if so, for whose benefit?

Sometimes I'm grateful I can no longer afford fly-fishing!
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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Can no longer afford fly fishing???

Where I live it's the cheapest form of angling around. I pay £132 a season for 30 visits to my local reservoir. I am allowed to take two fish per visit at an average size of 1 1/2bs. Have a look at the going rate for trout per pound and do the maths.

My fishing costs nowt and I only have to travel 4 miles. If I want I can go there by bus which also costs nowt.

It is only in the South of England that decent fly fishing for trout costs a lot of money. The further north you get, the cheaper it becomes. There is excellentriver fly fishing in the Yorkshire rivers for very modest club fees - somewhat less than coarse fishing fees in the midlands. In the far north of England and in much of Scotlandthere is free fishing in some waters for brown and sea trout. In Northern Ireland, the story is much the same.

The cost of a decent fly outfit is far less than a decent coarse fish outfit, and you don't have to traipse around humping mountains of gear.

Where I live, good fly fishing is a bargain!
 
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pin addict

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got to agree with you here ron,although i have yet to start fly fishing,i am busy trying to sort myself a novice outfit at the moment,

i have recently taken my self into account on my fishing costs and to tell you the truth if the wife found out how much i have spent on day tickets to fish commercialls in the last 12months,(nearly £2000 and thats just day tickets,she would go booloo

but i ahve come back to the real world and started fishing more natural venues for very little money and for 3 permits under £100i have a choice of over 50 venues running water and still and thats why i now want a fly set up as some of the running waters are perfect for the fly and there are more venues which are free,

i wont go down the route of day ticket fly fishing cause i know this can be expensive

but there is no need to pack in any kind of fishing cause its to expensive you just have to change your ways
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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Of course some day ticket trout waters can be very expensive. Take Avington for example at about £70 a day for 4 fish - no catch and release. A good fly angler can hit a limit in less than a hour, and then it's all over. But if you want to catch a huge trout, there is no better venue.

But you can get on a Midlands reservoir for about £300 a season which is not bad if you are keen.

Andremember there is nothing stopping you selling the trout you catch if you want to. For nearly two years I paid for my season ticket at Draycote by selling trout to a couple of pubs.

By the way Pin, if you have not caught a trout on a fly before, be warned.

You will be hooked, mark my words and it will be very difficult for you to stop.
 
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Alan Tyler

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You two don't live in London, do you?

I can ebay a Speedia for the price of a day's trouting down here, and I know which I'd rather have (clue: it has a rachet!).

There is demanding catch-and-release fishing to be had at Walthamstow, at a sensible season ticket price, but you need to be a bit of a fly-or-die enthusiast, and really put the hours in. And keen enough to put up with the surroundings.

Selling your catch only works if you can catch, and fly-fishing has a long learning curve to pay for before that's likely. If you live where trout live in reasonable numbers, fly-fishing makes good sense; if you're a London pensioner, you rediscover your love of gudgeon and roach.
 
Wobbly Face (As Per Ed)

Wobbly Face (As Per Ed)

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Egg flies, now we have scramble egg flies.

Egg flies and boobies are not for me. Nor is a sight bob. Some people use a boobie on the point and a team of buzzers on dropers. This is to keep the buzzers up in the water. Plus popping the boobie is supposed to attract the fish to the buzzers or suspened flies. Whats wrong with using a dry fly for same reason?

Why do some still water have wooden seats around? I have used these seats myself, but only when having a brew and tucker. Never fish at these times.

Egg flies and boobies, static fly fishing. Its not for me but I enjoy the way I fish. So long as others respect fishing and enjoy themselves then good to them.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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I certainly don't live in London. More like 165 miles north in Rotherham where within a 50 miles radius we have some of the best reservoir fishing in England. We also have some superb river trouting in Derbyshire which at some time I am going to look up. A local club has over 25 miles of river in this area and it doesn't cost the earth.

On top of that there are another dozen or so stocked small waters for between £12 and £18 a day.

By the way I have used 22 days of my 30 day ticket on Thrybergh and have killed 44 trout. Total number of fish taken is 196 fish and no blank days recorded.
 
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